In December 1956 the 17th Correctional Chamber of Paris heard a case brought by Le Ministère Publique (the State Prosecutor) against the publishing firm Les Editions Jean-Jacques Pauvert for having published works by Sade 'contraires aux bonnes moeurs'. The publishers were defended by the eminent lawyer Maître Maurice Garçon and evidence on their behalf was supplied by four leading writers – Jean Paulhan, Georges Bataille, Jean Cocteau and André Breton.
In a letter Cocteau wrote: 'The least important detective novel from prudish America is more pernicious than the most audacious page by Sade.' Ironically, the submission by André Breton, the surrealist leader, 'unfortunately went astray and could not be read during the session'. He began his statement by quoting Sade's own self-defence: 'I speak only to those capable of understanding me, and they will read me without danger.'
The judgement delivered the following month ordered that the titles incriminated (Sade's four major works) were to be confiscated and destroyed. The publishers were fined and ordered to pay costs. They appealed but the judgement was upheld.
A short transcript of the hearing had been published by Pauvert in 1957 before the appeal was heard. In 1987 the same publishers, with a new imprint, began to issue the complete works in a series, to date, of fifteen volumes. Three years later the first volume of Sade's complete writing appeared in the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, the series of works which includes only those deemed to have 'classic' status.
During 1966–7 Sade's Oeuvres Complètes were published in sixteen volumes by Le Cercle du Livre Précieux, Paris.
From 1986 onwards a new edition of the Oeuvres Complètes, established by Annie Le Brun and Jean-Jacques Pauvert, has been published by the Société Nouvelle des Editions Pauvert, in fifteen volumes to date (1991).
On 23rd May 1986 the Paris newspaper Libération published a supplement devoted to Sade, including the latest literary and critical developments to date, news of ongoing research directed by his descendant Thibault de Sade, and a previously unpublished poem (1947) about the writer, entitled Le Prisonnier, by the Mexican poet Octavio Paz.
Forthcoming publications, edited by Maurice Lever and Thibault de Sade, are expected to include 'plays, poems, stories, moral works and letters so far unpublished'.
SOME POSTHUMOUS PUBLICATIONS
1904 Les 120 Journées de Sodome. Ed. Dr Eugen Dühren. Club des Bibliophiles, Paris. 180 copies. (Publication was in fact in Berlin, Max Harrwitz)
1909 L'Oeuvre du Marquis de Sade, pages choisies. Introduction, essai bibliographique et notes par Guillaume Apollinaire. Bibliothèque des Curieux, Paris
1926 Historiettes, Contes et Fabliaux. Inédits publiés par Maurice Heine, pour les membres de la Société du roman philosophique. Paris
1926 Dialogue entre un Prêtre et un Moribond. Avant-propos et des notes par Maurice Heine. Stendhal et Compagnie, Paris
1930 Les Infortunes de la Vertu. Introduction par Maurice Heine. Editions Fourcade, Paris
1949 L'Aigle, Mademoiselle .. . Préface et commentaire par Gilbert Lély. Les Editions Georges Artigues, Paris
1953 Histoire Secrète d'Isabelle de Bavière, Reine de France. Avant-propos par Gilbert Lély. Gallimard, Paris
1954 Adelaide of Brunswick. Translated by Professor Hobart Ryland, Scarecrow Press, Washington, DC
1963 Lettres Choisies. Préface par Gilbert Lély. Pauvert, Paris
1970 Journal Inédit. Deux cahiers retrouvés du journal inédit du Marquis de Sade, 1807–1808, 1814, ed. Georges Daumas. Gallimard, Paris
SELECTED BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL WORKS
Apollinaire, Guillaume. Les Diables Amoureux. Gallimard, Paris, 1964
Beauvoir, Simone de. Faut-il Brûler Sade? Gallimard, Paris, 1955
Bloch, Dr Iwan. Marquis de Sade. Brittany Press, USA, 1948 ed.
Carter, Angela. The Sadeian Woman. Virago, London, 1979
Gorer, Geoffrey. The Life and Ideas of the Marquis de Sade (enlarged and revised edition). Peter Owen, London, 1953
Hayman, Ronald. De Sade, a Critical Biography. Constable, London, 1978
Lély, Gilbert. Vie du Marquis de Sade. 2 vols, Gallimard, Paris, 1952–7
Pauvert, Jean-Jacques (ed.). L'Affaire Sade. Pauvert, Paris, 1957 (1000 numbered copies)
OTHER
Bloch, Robert. The Skull of the Marquis de Sade (fiction). Pyramid Publications, New York, 1965
Breton, André (ed.). Anthologie de l'Humour Noir, Pauvert, Paris-, 1966
Camus, Albert. L'Homme Revolté. Gallimard, Paris, 1951
Delpech, Jeannine. La Passion de la Marquise de Sade. Editions Planète, Paris, 1970
Hyde, H. Montgomery. A History of Pornography. Heinemann, London, 1964
Mishima, Yukio. Madame de Sade (play). Peter Owen, London, 1968
Praz, Mario. The Romantic Agony. OUP, Oxford, 2nd ed. 1951
Weiss, Peter. Marat/Sade (short title) (play). Suhrkamp, Frankfurt-am-Main, W. Germany, 1964