365. Le Marquis de Sade: Sex and Violence

The Rest Is History

Goalhanger

History

4.6 • 26.6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 September 2023

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The father of sadism and a prophet of totalitarianism, the Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat and writer, an uncompromising and unashamed libertine with the eerie ability to corrupt those around him. Arrested first by the French monarchy and then by the revolutionaries, he spent much of his life in jail, narrowly avoiding the death penalty thanks to Robespierre’s deposition on the day of his proposed execution. Join Tom and Dominic as they discuss the Marquis, his turbulent life, his time in prison, and his unsettling legacy… *The Rest Is History Live Tour 2023*: Tom and Dominic are back on tour this autumn! See them live in London, New Zealand, and Australia! Buy your tickets here: restishistorypod.com Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Producer: Theo Young-Smith Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The President-de-Covale was the most senior member of this company of four Libertines.
0:16.0	Almost 60 years of age and singularly worn down by debauchery, he was barely more than a skeleton.
0:22.5	He was tall, whizzed, gaunt, with sunken and dimmed eyes, a livid and sickly mouth,
0:28.5	a prominent chin, a long nose. As her suit as a satire, with a flat back and flabby buttocks
0:36.0	that sagged so much, they seemed more like two dirty rags flopping over his thighs.
0:41.6	The skin there so withered by lashes of the whip, one could wrap it around one's finger without
0:47.5	his noticing and in the middle of all this. One could see, without having to spread,
0:52.9	oh, I can't read this, this will destroy the rest of history. It's literally a filthy passage.
0:59.4	Yes, it is literally a very, very filthy passage. Yes, from perhaps the most revolting and
1:06.8	shocking novel ever written. So it's by the Marquis de Saad, an absolute byword, of course, for
1:12.0	sexual depravity. And the novel is the 120 days of Sodom, which I've tried to read several times
1:18.8	that I've never managed to finish because it is so disgusting. It's simultaneously disgusting,
1:24.8	deeply unsettling, boring, and yet at moments very darkly funny. That's what people say of this
1:30.8	podcast on. Right. So the plot of 120 days of Sodom is just before the 14th. Sorry, I don't.
1:37.8	Just I was bad said, just before you get into the plots, we should probably say right to the
1:41.8	outset, if you're listening with people under the age of what, 40. Yeah, this is not a suitable topic.
1:50.0	So, you know, if you're doing the school run this into this podcast, I think maybe history's greatest
1:54.1	dogs would be a pigeon's or a better subject. Love Island. Exactly. But anyway, now that those
1:59.9	people have had a chance to depart the podcast, 120 days of Sodom, Tom, boring, disgusting,
2:05.1	darkly funny, et cetera, et cetera. Described by Sad himself as the most impure tale ever written
2:10.3	since the world began, which I think is no exaggeration. And it describes four Libertines
2:15.3	who retire to a castle called Silling, which is absolutely remote, inaccessible up on account
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Goalhanger, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Goalhanger and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.