517 The Marquis de Sade
The History of Literature
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The Obscenity of the Countess
In SOD's world, you do force it if you're the count. Not only does he force it upon his wife, he forces his servants and terese to endure his predation. He forces Terese to do it as sort of a preparation for her real job, which is to help him abuse his wife. What strikes the modern reader is that there's no consent. There's not even a nod to sadomasochism. We've accepted that this is a not unhealthy feature of sexuality that some people like to receive pain. It's allowable in our modern thinking. Two people can willingly engage in it for pleasure with safe words and agreements and all that. In S
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