Sainte-Pélagie was yet another former convent converted into a prison. Under the monarchy it had also come to be used for housing and attempting to rehabilitate ladies of dubious repute. In 1790 the nuns were driven out, and in 1792 the Paris Commune converted it into a prison. By September 1793 it had become the major prison for political offenders. Altogether about 350 people with ideas unsympathetic to the government were housed there, and taken thence to execution. When de Sade was transferred there in early April 1801, it was no longer the anteroom to death but contained mainly various young criminals and debtors. De Sade was able to gain some consolation from the occasional visits of Mme Quesnet.
On 20th May 1802 de Sade petitioned the Minister of Justice to allow him to appear in court to defend himself before magistrates. Otherwise he should be set free: ‘I asked to be set free. Either I am or I am not the author of the book that is imputed to me. If I am convicted, I wish to endure my punishment. But if not, I want to be free.’20 But his pleas fell on deaf ears.
During his time in Sainte-Pélagie de Sade became a member of an unusual literary group. Another inmate, Hurard Saint-Désiré, and two other frustrated writers decided to found a society exclusively for a select number of fellow prisoners known to have literary and intellectual tastes. They arranged to hold discussions over dinner and soon the group became known as the ‘Dîners de Sainte-Pélagie’. There were altogether nine members, and with his dominant personality de Sade soon took on the role of president.
Literary discourse did not, however, suffice as an outlet for de Sade’s libido. It is also recorded that he paid a great deal of attention to some young men imprisoned for minor offences on the same corridor as his cell. It is known that he probably went a little too far in the pursuit of his desires one day in March 1803, though the nature of the excess is unknown. Perhaps it involved indecent propositions or acts. The event came to the notice of the authorities, and it was decided to transfer to him to Bicêtre, another notorious place of confinement. This institution had long had a reputation as both prison and what would nowadays be described as a lunatic asylum and had for many years housed the dregs of society, from the madman to the murderer, from the pickpocket to the prostitute. It was closed in 1790 but opened again under the Directory as an asylum, under the more enlightened guidance of the psychiatrist Philippe Pinel. Living conditions were better but the reputation of the institution persisted.
De Sade arrived in Bicêtre on 15th March 1803, though his stay was not to be a long one because his wife became concerned about the stain on the family name if it became known that her husband was in such an infamous institution. She pleaded with the prefect Dubois to have him transferred to a more reputable place. He finally managed to arrange for de Sade to be sent to the renowned asylum at Charenton. It was obviously difficult to prove that the marquis was by any definition insane, so it was decided to diagnose his condition as one of sexual obsession. An arrangement was made for the family to pay the sum of 3,000 francs a year in quarterly instalments, to cover the costs of feeding, caring for and guarding him. The director of the asylum, François Simonet de Coulmier, was given strict instructions that he was at all costs to prevent the marquis from escaping.
Coulmier is a significant figure in his own right and he did much to improve the treatment of the mentally ill, though his methods were not universally respected at the time. Having trained and worked as a priest he became active after the revolution in charity work and the improvement of hospitals. He was finally appointed head of the asylum at Charenton in 1797. When he arrived there the hospital was in an abysmal condition and he immediately set about making it habitable. He also brought some organisation to what had been simply mayhem: he grouped the patients in wards according to their mental condition, putting melancholics together, hypochondriacs together and so on. He also had several new wards built, to enable the women to be housed separately from the men. He faced constant opposition from the medical establishment, however, for his liberal views on the treatment of the mentally ill. Many official and unofficial reports describe extreme and cruel treatments of some patients, but it is undoubtedly true that the methods practised at Charenton were among the most advanced and humane of the period. Coulmier also attracted criticism for his encouragement of extensive social functions at Charenton, at which patients could mingle with invited celebrities from the world outside. There were concerts, balls and theatrical productions, involving not only the inmates but also literary figures and popular actors and actresses.
While incarcerated in Charenton de Sade continued to write letters of protest at his detention without proper trial, and to devote himself to literary production. His relationship with Coulmier, if not always smooth and trouble-free, became one of friendship. They shared similar tastes: for parties, for theatrical spectacles and for a generally libertine lifestyle. De Sade was also allowed a relatively free and pleasant lifestyle within the confines of what was possible in such an institution. He had rooms neatly if not expensively decorated, with a pleasant view, and access to a library. He was free to wander around the grounds and could receive guests. From August 1804 Mme Quesnet was allowed to stay in the hospital as a boarder in a room next to de Sade’s. She was passed off as his illegitimate daughter.
In January 1806, at the age of sixty-five, de Sade decided that he ought to make a will. He was particularly concerned to show his gratitude to Mme Quesnet. He intended to leave her 80,000 livres in actual cash, together with all his personal effects, including his papers, manuscripts and books. Possessions inherited from his father were to be distributed among his offspring. He also made very specific requests concerning the disposal of his physical remains: he should be kept in the room where he died for forty-eight hours and then placed in a wooden coffin. A certain timber merchant in Versailles by the name of M. Le Normand was to transport the coffin on his cart to a small wood near de Sade’s property in Malmaison. The coffin would then be buried without any ceremony in a grave dug in a small copse. Only close friends and relatives who wished to should be present at the event. Then acorns should be planted on the spot, so that eventually all traces of his grave would disappear, just as he expected to disappear completely from human memory
Despite the extensive freedoms allowed the marquis, he was under constant surveillance. The police regularly searched his room for obscene materials and he was given the stern warning that if any incriminating material were found he would be sent back to Bicêtre. He managed, however, to continue working on numerous literary projects. As well as writing several short stories he was also writing an extensive epistolary novel with a suitably extensive title: Les Journées de Florbelle ou la Nature devoilée suivie des Mémoires de l’Abbé de Modose et Les Adventures d’Emilie de Volnange servant de preuves aux assertions (Days at Florbelle or Nature Unveiled, followed by the Memoirs of the Abbé Modose and the Adventures of Emilie de Volnange, serving as proofs of Assertions Made). In this work, completed in April 1807, he attempted to incorporate some of the material he could recall from his lost manuscript of The 120 Days of Sodom.
On 5th June 1807 the police searched his rooms again, finding not only many papers of a dubious nature but also several instruments that were clearly used for masturbatory purposes. In Mme Quesnet’s apartment they found a manuscript entitled Les Entretiens du Château de Florbelle (Discussions at the Château de Florbelle), which proved to contain much material that the authorities clearly considered to be disgusting. It was a play that was later given the title Les Journées de Florbelle (Days at Florbelle) and was clearly related thematically to the epistolary novel. The work would be burned at the specific request of his son, Claude-Armand, after his death. On the occasion of this latest police raid and search of his belongings, de Sade revealed that he was still obsessed with the irrational numerological theories that he had developed earlier in life as a method of coping with the isolation of incarceration. He was able to calculate that it was exactly three years, one month and five days since the last time his papers had been seized. There is further evidence that the obsession still dominated him in early August, when he expressed the belief that he was being sent a mysterious signal involving the number two: two newspapers had been sent to him and two people had come to see him from Mazan. Then on 12th September it was the number one that he felt was significant: he borrowed Volume I of a history book and returned a borrowed copy of Volume I of his own work Les Crimes de l’Amour. During a visit by his son one extra course was served and they discussed Volume I of the book he was working on, entitled Histoire de la Nation Française (History of the French Nation), which was the only volume he was to complete.
In the organisation of theatrical spectacles Coulmier and de Sade were aided by the chief physician at Charenton, Dr Gastaldy. Coulmier and Gastaldy sought out not only plays but also games and other activities to divert their patients. Concerts and dancing were also arranged. The general intention was to distract the patients, whatever their maladies, from melancholy thoughts and obsessions. News of these performances soon spread and not only actors and actresses but also ladies and gentlemen of high social standing began to seek tickets for the performances. Although his name was not made prominent in any official accounts of the performances, it was the Marquis de Sade who was the central creative genius behind the productions. He was essentially the artistic director of Charenton and was willing to take on any task related to the performances, however menial. As well as writing plays, acting in them and organising productions, he would turn his hand to designing scenery on occasion, and even helping as a stagehand. He was also instrumental in persuading Coulmier to have a special theatre built for the events. It was not to be a makeshift allpurpose space but a fully equipped theatre, with not only a stage but also wings, tiers of seats, boxes for special guests and an orchestra pit. Special areas were reserved for the better behaved of the hospital inmates, so that they might also enjoy their own productions. There was in addition room for about two hundred special guests, who were fêted with expensive dinners. Other than those allocated to selected patients the main roles were usually played by professional Parisian actors and actresses.
The fact that such theatrical performances took place became widely known in the twentieth century as a result of Peter Weiss’ famous play The Marat/Sade, which depicts an imaginary production at Charenton. In Weiss’ play the main characters are played by patients with appropriate mental conditions, so that, for example, Marat is played by a paranoiac and Charlotte Corday by a catatonic. There is no evidence however that in the original productions any attempt was made to match characters to conditions. Important roles would in any case have been played by professional actors and actresses.
Several records of audience reactions to the productions have survived, in most of which fascination seems to have centred on the presence of the notorious marquis. The young actress Mademoiselle Flore wrote of how she observed the marquis with curiosity, knowing that he was the author of books that were considered an affront to good taste and morality, adding, with a nice irony, that this comment was intended to give the impression that she had not read them.21 The journalist and songwriter Armand de Rochefort noted that at the end of a performance at Charenton the general audience reaction was one of ‘surprise and astonishment’ that such a performance was possible.22
In May 1808 de Sade’s family were considering ways of having him removed from Charenton to a prison where he would not attract so much public attention. A plot was hatched to facilitate his removal. On 31st May his son Donatien-Claude visited him unexpectedly, saying that he needed his consent to marriage. De Sade had no objection to this but he was told that the legal procedure could only take place in the office of a notary. Coulmier was reluctant to allow him out of the asylum but finally agreed to an evening visit to the notary’s office. Fortunately for de Sade, his other son, Louis-Marie, for whatever reasons, felt more concern for his father’s welfare than the rest of the family and warned him by express letter that he was being drawn into a trap. The plan had been to take him from the notary’s office to yet another prison fortress, probably Mont-Saint-Michel or the Tower of Ham. De Sade refused henceforth to have anything to do with marriage agreements.
His future was still not secure, however, for in August 1808 Royer-Collard, who was the chief medical officer at Charenton, took it upon himself to write to the minister of police informing him that in his opinion de Sade could not be diagnosed as mad, and that because the marquis was in the habit of indoctrinating fellow inmates with his abominable beliefs it would be best to remove him to a prison or a fortress. On 2nd September the prefect also recommended to the minister that de Sade should be transferred to a state prison. On that same day the minister decided to send him to the Tower of Ham. It was thanks to Coulmier’s intervention, in going to see the minister himself, that a delay in implementing the order was accomplished: first to 15th April 1809, and then indefinitely. The family had also by now come to see that the old marquis was too unwell and infirm to be moved, especially during the winter months. It might well be that details of his physical condition were somewhat exaggerated to impress the minister, but he was undoubtedly in a generally poor condition. In October 1808 a certain Dr Deguise reported that the marquis was suffering from rheumatism and palpitations as well as dizziness which caused him to stumble frequently. De Sade himself complained of stomach, throat and tooth problems, pains in his swollen right leg and the loss of sight in one eye. Postponement of the transfer was also effected by various other petitions, from de Sade’s cousin, Delphine, then Mme de Talaru, and Mme de Bimard, the mother of the young woman whom Claude-Armand intended to marry The minister of police finally cancelled the transfer order altogether and ordered that de Sade should remain at Charenton for the rest of his life.
In the middle of June 1809 de Sade received the news that his elder son Louis-Marie had been killed in Italy on 9th June. He had been on his way to join his unit at Otranto. He was ambushed and shot in the head by rebels in the province of Avellino. There is no record of de Sade having expressed any sense of loss at the news, though Louis-Marie had been his favourite son. If he was moved by the news then his feelings seem to have been expressed in anger at his younger son for telling his mother the news too soon, before she was in a state to cope with it.
On 17th June 1809 de Sade wrote directly to the Emperor Napoleon to plead once more for freedom, principally on grounds of age and ill health. On 12th July the Privy Council on matters concerning state prisoners advised the emperor that de Sade should continue to be held in detention and refused all contact with the world outside. The Interior Minister Montalivet duly instructed Coulmier on 18th October that de Sade was to be placed in complete isolation and especial care was to be taken to prevent him having access to any kinds of writing materials. To his credit Coulmier protested against all these restrictions and gradually de Sade regained all his former freedoms.
De Sade’s wife, Renée-Pélagie, long separated from her husband, was living in her chateau of Echauffour with her daughter and occasionally in an apartment she rented in a convent in Paris. On 7th July 1809 she died in Echauffour at the age of sixty-nine, blind, crippled and deaf. There is no record of de Sade’s reactions to the news of his wife’s death.
Over three years the marquis had kept a journal of his time in Charenton in a series of small notebooks. One of them was confiscated in October 1810, and another in 1814, though there was nothing incriminating or obviously in contravention of any moral code in them. They mainly contained endless obscure scribblings and evidence of his continued obsession with numbers.
One thing that really fulfilled him intellectually and creatively during this period was his continuing preoccupation with the theatre. He continued to put on productions of plays by other writers and prepared texts of his own plays for performance. On 6th October 1812 he wrote a cantata in honour of the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Maury, which the hospital authorities decided to submit as the work of a female patient rather than risk offending a man of God by presenting him with a work associated with the infamous marquis. De Sade also still clung to the dream that his play Jeanne Laisné would be performed by the Comédie-Française, even submitting it again to this theatre in 1813.
During this time he also worked on several novels with historical themes. In 1812 he wrote a novel based on a story from the eleventh century which he entitled Adelaïde de Brunswick, but this was not finally published until 1964. In 1813 he wrote a historical novel in two short volumes called La Marquise de Gange (The Marquess of Gange), based on the life of Marie-Elisabeth de Rossan, Marquess of Gange, who was murdered by her two brothers-in-law. This was published anonymously. In the same year he worked at revising his work Histoire secrète d’Isabelle de Bavière (The Secret History of Isabelle of Bavaria), for which however a publisher could not be found. It was finally published for the first time in 1953.
Despite continuing protests from the authorities who doubted the effectiveness of Coulmier’s use of theatrical performances in the treatment of his patients, dramatic entertainments continued to be staged at Charenton. Ironically some of the patients themselves brought about the final cessation of dramatic activities. They were becoming distressed at the fact that while lavish parties, dinners and spectacles were being staged in their midst, they themselves continued to live in appalling conditions. On 29th January 1812 one patient even complained in a letter to the minister of the interior. As a result of countless other complaints from various sources the minister finally decided, on 6th May 1813, that all festivities, concerts and like performances at Charenton should cease immediately. Coulmier tried desperately to have the order cancelled, but without success.
During this period, as may well be imagined, de Sade did not cease in his pursuit of amorous pleasures. There was sufficient life in the old dog yet for him to seek to gratify his always demanding libido. On 9th January 1808 de Sade became aware for the first time of the presence of the daughter of one of the nurses in the hospital. The young girl was working there as an apprentice laundress or seamstress. Her name was Madeleine Leclerc. At the time she could have been little more than twelve years old. When de Sade started complaining about the slanderous rumours concerning his relationship to her, spread by people he did not name, she was about fifteen years old. His journal for the period from July to November 1814 reveals in cryptic codified forms details of their lovemaking. When the girl’s mother discovered the relationship she only encouraged her daughter to persist in her attempts to gratify the elderly gentleman, who was only too willing to part with his money in recompense for the girl’s favours. The relationship would seem to have involved some degree of real mutual affection. Mme Quesnet seems to have learned to tolerate the relationship in the knowledge that no one could ever replace herself in de Sade’s affections. The marquis even discussed the possibility of setting up a ménage à trois with the two women once he had his freedom, which he was in no doubt he would eventually attain.
By this time the political scene in France had changed dramatically. On 11th April 1814 Napoleon had abdicated at Fontainebleau, and by 5th May King Louis XVIII had formed his first government. On 31st May the new Minister of the Interior, Montesquieu, replaced Coulmier as director of Charenton with a M. Roulhac de Maupas. On 7th September Maupas sent a lengthy report to Montesquieu on the Marquis de Sade, ending with the recommendation that he be transferred to another institution. But by the middle of October no decision had been reached. Montesquieu urged the director general of the Royal Police to take prompt action. Fortunately for de Sade the delay dragged on.
In the course of November de Sade’s health declined. He had severe pains in the lower part of his abdomen and, as a final bitter irony for the ageing libertine, he suffered excruciating pain in his genitals. On Wednesday 30th November, he wrote that he had been fitted with a truss, the last information to be recorded by him. On Thursday 1st December he could not walk and was suffering from a fever. He was given more comfortable quarters and a servant to care for him. The next day his son Claude-Armand came to see him. The hospital chaplain also visited him and, according to his report, de Sade had asked him to come back to see him the next day. A young doctor called Ramon watched by his side and fed him with an infusion occasionally. Shortly after ten o’clock in the evening, and after having given him some of the infusion again, the doctor noticed that the old man’s heavy and laboured breathing had stopped. The most notorious libertine of the age was dead.
It proved impossible to fulfil several of the wishes expressed in his will. For one thing the land where he had wished to be buried had been sold in 1810. He was buried instead at the far eastern end of the cemetery of Charenton, near the bank of the river that separated the cemetery from the forest of Vincennes. A stone without an inscription was placed on the spot. As though to spite his passionate atheism it was marked by a simple cross.