The novelist Marquis de Sade was born on June 2, 1740, in Paris, France. He died on December 2, 1814.
The son of an aristocrat, he was educated by his uncle, the Monk Jacques de Sade. He aspired to be a soldier and served in the Seven Years' War, returning in 1863. He later married the daughter of a magistrate and had two sons and a daughter. However, he soon began to show signs of mental illness and was imprisoned for sodomy and other crimes.
During his nearly 40 years in prison, he wrote many works. However, many of his works, such as "The 120 Days of Sodom," "The Misfortunes of Virtue," and "The Story of Juliet, or the Triumph of Vice," contained obscene and cruel images, and were banned in the 19th century. He was released in 1790, but was imprisoned in the Charenton psychiatric hospital in 1803, where he remained until his death in 1814.

His books have been highly acclaimed since the 20th century, due to their influence on surrealist and existentialist thought. In Japan, Tatsuhiko Shibusawa introduced many of his works. The word "sadism" is derived from his name.