Man's cruelty to man as revealed in Naziism bit deeply into the consciousness of France's intellectuals. Since the end of the war, France's intellectuals have been sloshing through the sludge at the bottom of their own and other men's minds in search of some explanation. In this echoing and noisome place, time and again they have encountered the shadowy figure of the man known as the Marquis de Sade. Last week a Paris court debated a question: Was Sade an intrepid explorer and detached observer of the depths? Or was he there because he liked it? In a...
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