SADE, MARQUIS DE

born June 2, 1740, Paris, France died Dec. 2, 1814, Charenton, near Paris byname of Donatien-alphonse-franois, Comte De Sade French nobleman whose perverse sexual preferences and erotic writings gave rise to the term sadism. His best-known work is the novel Justine (1791). Additional reading Biographical studies are Gilbert Lly, The Marquis de Sade (1961); Donald Thomas, The Marquis de Sade (1976); and Ronald Hayman, De Sade: A Critical Biography (1978). Lawrence W. Lynch, The Marquis de Sade (1984), is a useful critical introduction to his works, with a valuable bibliography of studies of de Sade. Colette Verger Michael, The Marquis de Sade: The Man, His Works, and His Critics (1986), is a full-length annotated bibliography.