Third Dialogue, Part One Summary and Analysis

The Third Dialogue is the first extended session of debauchery in the Bedroom Philosophers. Madame de Saint-Ange and Eugenie enter the boudoir and discover Dolmance waiting for them. Eugenie is livid, accusing Madame of arranging this outrage. Dolmance convinces the young girl to forgo her affectations of modesty and begins to kiss her.

What follows sets up the pattern of the rest of the book. The libertines arrange themselves into various positions of copulation. After their orgasmic revelry subsides, Dolmance, with the assistance of Madame de Saint, expound on the philosophy underlying the libertine lifestyle.

The sex in this section of entirely is the masturbatory, fellatio, and cunnilingus variety, and establishes some hallmarks of the de Sade aesthetic—primarily that anal sex is invariably preferable to vaginal intercourse. This is the opinion of both...