A review by ayla_derammelaere
The 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is the first book I ever read written by de Sade. I was intrigued if the man on who's name sadism and masochism are based, has written the type of stories I had in my mind. There is one simple answer to that question : no, he hasn't.

The book tells the story of 4 friends (libertines) who take a number of girls, boys, women and men to a little castle who they can use as they wish. Besides that, there are a few women there to serve them food and 4 women who will tell stories based on their experiences. The stories start very 'mild' and end with stories about torture and murder.
The 4 friends want to enact on all the tales they hear but force each other to also follow the line of the stories and start with 'basic' things so they gradually can make the tortures worse.
A lot of the fantasies have to do with eating poop, which for me, is very unpleasant to read. I read someone else's review (before I read these scenes) that he/she couldn't read this book when eating and now, I do understand why.

For me, the book is written mainly to shock people : I'm not completely sure if everything that de Sade writes about, are things that he actually wanted to do or did (although some of the fantasies must be real). The reasons why I say this, are : 
1. he makes sure that almost all the men in the stories are priests (or of the same sort) so that he is sure people will react when they read his book
2. women are only here to serve men and are useless ; even in such a way that there shouldn't be women at all but nature would find a way to make sure the human race doesn't get extinct 
3. a lot of the stories are written in a very boring way ; he also doesn't take the time to write about what happens during the morning/afternoon but very often skips to the evening so he can start with the storytelling ; I believe that if this is what you really want to be doing / if these are strong fantasies of yours, you would write them with a lot of detail and variations (but I can be wrong in my believes)