This was an informative book about how the Marquis de Sade and one of his most infamous works have impacted history from the French revolution through modern day. I found much of the herocizing of the Marquis to be unsettling at the best of times. It feels as if the world chose to forget his reprehensible assaults in exchange for viewing his writing academically.

The association between the Marquis and the French surrealist movement has permanently tarnished my perception of the movement. Their taking his work for its artistic value, rather than receiving them in the context of the violent sexual assaults he perpetuated shows a fatal flaw in the foundations of the movement.

Much of this book, in setting the stage for the final act of destruction associated with the text 120 Days of Sodom, focuses in on the life, delusions of grandeur, and crimes of the founder of the rare book and historical document investment firm Aristophil. His artificial inflation of their worth single handedly destroyed the rare formerly thriving French rare books market. Though occasionally mentioned, and somewhat intuitable, the idea of a curse associated with the manuscript isn't kept up in the text of the book, but is rather ephemeral within the subtext, especially in association with the Aristophil narrative.