SOURCE: “The Sight of Evil,” in Los Angeles Times Book Review, November 15, 1998, pp. 10–11.

In the following review, Shattuck addresses Gray's sympathetic portrayal of Sade in At Home with the Marquis de Sade.

We sometimes learn more from the sight of evil than from the example of the good.

—PASCAL [from “Pensées”]

A few decades ago, more than one edition of Webster's dictionary carried a concise entry: “Sade, Marquis de (1780–1814). French soldier and pervert.” It's a hard line to beat. No leers. No drum rolls. Four words to fit the man into the niche he deserves. Baudelaire, Flaubert, Swinburne and Sainte-Beuve had taken him out for a closer look. They either shuddered or heard distant thunder or burst into mocking guffaws at Sade's excesses. Then they put him back where they found him and went on.

Since the beginning of our century, however, Webster and others notwithstanding, strong...