The Sadeian Woman: An Exercise in Cultural History

(Paperback)

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Description

Sexuality is power' - so says the Marquis de Sade, philosopher and pornographer extraordinaire. His virtuous Justine keeps to the rules laid down by men, her reward rape and humiliation; his Juliette, Justine's triumphantly monstrous antithesis, viciously exploits her sexuality. In a world where all tenderness is false, all beds are minefields.

But now Sade has met his match.

With invention and genius, Angela Carter takes on these outrageous figments of his extreme imagination, and transforms them into symbols of our time - the Hollywood sex goddesses, mothers and daughters, pornography, even the sacred shrines of sex and marriage lie devastatingly exposed before our eyes. Angela Carter delves into the viscera of our distorted sexuality and reveals a dazzling vision of love which admits neither of conqueror nor of conquered.

Reviews

Angela Carter is neither ordinary nor timid. The tone is one of intellectual relish ... rational ... refined ... witty * New Statesman *
The boldest of English women writers -- Lorna Sage
Her work is funny, sexy, frightening and brutal, and is always shaped by a keen, subversive intelligence and a style of luxuriant beauty -- Edmund Gordon * The Guardian *
Angela Carter liked to blur boundaries and break rules -- Gaby Wood * Independent *

Author Bio

One of Britain's most original writers, Angela Carter was highly lauded for her novels, short stories and journalism. She died in February 1992.