SADE, Marquis de
Les 120 Journées de Sodome
£1,500
Paris: Par S&C., aux dépens des bibliophiles souscripteurs.. 1931-35.
The first critical edition. Number 197 of 300 copies (numbered from 61-360) on vélin de Rives paper. Three volumes in the original grey wrappers. Title printed in black and red to upper covers and spines. 275x210mm. pp. Tome Premier, xvi, 218; Tome Second, [iv], 219-402; Tome Troisième, [iv], 403-498, [1]. Frontispiece in volume one is a photograph of the original manuscript scroll with de Sade's minuscule writing. Introduction by Maurice Heine. Critical apparatus of notes and primary source references in the margins. Some chipping to head and foot of spine of volumes one and two. Scuffing to a small patch on the lower cover of volume one with loss of grey paper but overall an excellent copy of the first full edition of this profoundly moral work of anti-enlightenment satire. De Sade's description of the sexually corrosive nature of power and wealth is strikingly modern. Read as political and social philosophy the book transcends the degeneracy of its ostensible genre and becomes, to use Deleuze's word, "pornology" not pornography.
The first critical edition. Number 197 of 300 copies (numbered from 61-360) on vélin de Rives paper. Three volumes in the original grey wrappers. Title printed in black and red to upper covers and spines. 275x210mm. pp. Tome Premier, xvi, 218; Tome Second, [iv], 219-402; Tome Troisième, [iv], 403-498, [1]. Frontispiece in volume one is a photograph of the original manuscript scroll with de Sade's minuscule writing. Introduction by Maurice Heine. Critical apparatus of notes and primary source references in the margins. Some chipping to head and foot of spine of volumes one and two. Scuffing to a small patch on the lower cover of volume one with loss of grey paper but overall an excellent copy of the first full edition of this profoundly moral work of anti-enlightenment satire. De Sade's description of the sexually corrosive nature of power and wealth is strikingly modern. Read as political and social philosophy the book transcends the degeneracy of its ostensible genre and becomes, to use Deleuze's word, "pornology" not pornography.
