Who but the Marquis de Sade would write, not of the pain, tragedy, and joy of love, but of its crimes? Murder, seduction, and incest are among the cruel rewards for selfless love inthese stories; tragedy, despair, and death the inevitable outcome. Sade's villains will stop at nothing to satisfy their depraved passions, and they in turn suffer under the thrall of love. Psychologically astute and defiantly unconventional, thesetales show Sade at his best. A skilled and artful storyteller, he is also an intellectual who asks questions about society, about ourselves, and about life, for which we have yet to find the answers."