The Marquis de Sade is known variously to history as the Divine Marquis” (the Surrealists) and that monster author” (Napoleon)because of the daring originality and scandalous nature of much of his writing. What is less known, or virtually forgotten, is that he also possessed a dark but undeniable sense of humor. Visible in even his most outrageous and somber publications, it burst into full bloom in his shorter works of fiction. The great virtue of this volume is that it reveals that lighter, comic side of Sade. He was a man obsessed, like many great writers, and his obsessions are still present here: his hatred of all things pretentious, his loathing of a corrupt judicial system, his damning of hypocrisy and false piety. One of the great anarchists of all time, he was nevertheless far from mad (as many pretended) and these works of fiction shed another light on this most feverish of minds. But however heavy the subject, The Mystified Magistrate is infused with a light touch; it is revealing but never offensive.
