Margaret Crosland

The Marquis de Sade, infamous for his obscene writing and his cruelty to women, nonetheless lived a life dominated by them—his charismatic mother, iron-willed mother-in-law, and his wife. A wife who, despite her husband's peccadilloes, and although their marriage was arranged in order for their families to combine financial and social capital, loved him devotedly for thirty years, through betrayal,...