Philosophy in the Boudoir: Or, the Immoral Mentors (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

by Marquis de Sade and Marqués de Sade

Book Overview

Philosophy in the Bedroom accounts the lascivious education of a privileged young lady at the dawn of womanhood.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143039016
• ISBN13: 9780143039013
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.7" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Read it if you love sex

If you want to break the borders of your fantasies... if you want to hear the richest description of the sex and the pleasure it brings... if you are ready for something which might feel immoral... if you consider sex as an art... if you love sex... read it... feel it... do not judge... And if you want something similar but modern search for Michel Houellebecq...

Oh, but there's so much more!

I thought Incest was really well written (much like Lolita, where the content is filthy but you can't help but fall in love with the writer for how gifted he is with language), so I checked this one out next. Initially, Philosophy in the Boudoir came off as porn for the thinking man and nothing more - and really, everything has its place - but about halfway into the book there appeared some interesting philosophy that really completes some of what the Marquis got into with Incest. He further develops arguments on morality here, and if you're a Camus fan, a good deal of these arguments are actually pretty compatible with Camus, too. If you can get past (or enjoy?) all the anal sex bits, this is actually some pretty smart philosophy with what appears to be Marquis de Sade's characters debating either side of his own arguments.

Brilliant

While the repetition wears thin after a little while, the joyous nihilism of Sade's work is infectious. Dolmance, the purveyor of vice and hedonism, corruptor of youth and highly sexed being, argues eloquently (does anyone get this philosophical during an orgy?) for murder, incest, and a host of other actions civilization has put the ban on. Let's hope for the sake of things in general that everyone is not convinced, but watch as the master of debauchery tramples happily on all of our most tenaciously held ideals.

Hilarious, erotic and though-provoking!

I loved Marquis de Sade's Juliette and I looked forward to reading another one of his mind-blowing, thought-provoking erotica novels. Philosophy in the Bedroom has a rather warped, ironic humor when describing the bedroom exploits. Oddly enough, the erotic occurrences in the book do seem rather philosophical. For instance, I love the passage that says, "Imagination is the spur of delights." This describes the novel's explicit exploits down to a tee. The dark humor is second to none. I can't believe I hadn't discovered Marquis de Sade before. I shall look forward to reading more of his memorable work.