SOURCE: “This Will Hurt,” in National Review, Vol. 50, No. 25, December 31, 1998, p. 44.

In the following review of At Home with the Marquis de Sade, Mano explores the role of sado-masochism in Sade's life and work.

As Albert Camus wrote in The Rebel: “The history and tragedy of our era really begin with [Sade]. … Our times have blended, in a curious manner, his dream of a universal republic and his technique of degradation” (ellipses provided by Francine du Plessix Gray). Sade's technique was predominantly theatrical. He had always wanted to be a playwright, not a lowly pornographer, and, as a result, his erotic fantasies never seem quite real, being at some level tableaux vivants or stage effects that depend on lighting and costume for their passion.

The 1770s in France, like the 1960s in America, were performed, not lived. Even Sade's private carousing went public. After his first scandal (whipping...