The Marquis De Sade As a Key Figure of Enlightenment—How His Crystal Genius Still Speaks to Today's World and Its Major Problems

Arguing that popular ideas of de Sade (1740-1814) and sadism are misrepresented stereotypes of his thinking, Traore (PhD, French studies, U. of Minnesota) reads his writings as reflections of Enlightenment era realities vs. ideals and warnings to future generations on how prejudice, injustice, hypocrisy, corruption and wickedness of the powerful create misfortune for the poor and virtuous. Justine exemplifies the still-relevant sexual hypocrisy of the Church; Faxelage prefigures Freud's theory of dreams; and his views on virtue are comparable with those of 20th century English peace activist George Lansbury in My Pilgrimage for Peace (1938). Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Moussa Traore earned a PhD in French studies at the University of Minnesota, after studying English and civilization in his native Burkina Faso. He has taught at the University of Minnesota and at Century College, and he is the author of One Story of Academia: Race Lines and the Rhetoric of Distinction through the Academie francaise (Peter Lang, 2010).