When she's abandoned her moral center and teachings...when she's cast aside her facade of propriety and lady-like demeanor...when I have so corrupted this fragile thing and brought out a writhing, mewling, bucking, wanton whore for my enjoyment and pleasure.....enticing from within this feral lioness...growling and scratching and biting...taking everything I dish out to her.....at that moment she is never more beautiful to me.

Alternating title usage indicates that titular hierarchy (below duc et pair) was notional; theoretically the marquis title was granted to noblemen owning several countships but its use by men of dubious lineage caused its disrepute. He was arrested there and imprisoned in the Château de Vincennes. Similarly Camille Paglia argued that Sade can be best understood as a satirist responding "point by point" to Rousseau's claims that society inhibits and corrupts mankind's innate goodness: Sade wrote in the aftermath of the French Revolution when Rousseauist Jacobins instituted the bloody Reign of Terror.

Donatien Alphonse François Marquis de Sade (French: [maʁki də sad]; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814) was a French aristocrat revolutionary politician philosopher and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle. He was a proponent of extreme freedom unrestrained by morality religion or law. During the French Revolution he was an elected delegate to the National Convention.