Who was the Marquis de Sade (Really)?
Many hold a visual image of Donatien Alphonse Francois Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) based on Geoffrey Rushs relatively lithe, lean portrayal of the notorious French libertine in the 2000 Quills. Though he gives a fine performance, Rushs line and shape could hardly be different from those of the historical Sade, who was morbidly obese. This is but one of the misrepresentations of the man who would lend his name to a concept of sexual cruelty. Sades corpulence was the result of imprisonment with little exercise and a frequently privileged diet. He was interred for much of the second half of his life. His confinement, though related to his sexual indiscretions, was largely because both his sacrilege and political-familial conflict with his powerful in-laws, the Montreuils.