Anyone who thinks “Fifty Shades of Grey” was racy has clearly never heard of Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade. Born in 1740, de Sade is considered one of the most sexually deviant and rebellious characters in history. In fact, the word sadism is derived from his very name. The Marquis lived a life of monstrous passion and dark intellect, leaving a permanent mark on history as a noteworthy writer, thinker, and fornicator. Whether you admire him or loathe him, one thing is for sure, he lived a life like no other.

The Marquis was not just anybody. He was the only son born to Count de Sade and his noble wife Jean Baptiste François Joseph, in the famous Paris Hôtel de Condé in 1740. Though his life seemed to be full of privilege, de Sade was abandoned by both parents at a young age and left with his uncle, a notorious eccentric. The boy was raised without a mother, adhering to the demands of his perverted relative, and was raised by servants who, while unable to offer him any real affection, catered to his every whim. As a result, he grew to be a spoiled, entitled young man with an ever-growing temper and a bizarre sense of affection.

At the tender age of ten years, de Sade was sent to a nearby Jesuit college, the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris where he was regularly whipped by his instructors and humiliated in front of the other students. Later in life when de Sade was on trial for “unspeakable acts” against women, a former priest testified that de Sade was obsessed with the pursuit of physical pleasure and became preoccupied with the violence he received at the hands of his teachers. In fact, he seemed to enjoy it. Little did his teacher know, this preoccupation would soon blossom into a full-blown sadistic obsession.

At just 15 years old, de Sade was drafted into the military and underwent 20 grueling months of training, eventually becoming a soldier in the French army. He seemed to excel in the military and was eventually promoted to Colonel of a Dragoon regiment where he fought in the Seven Years’ War. During this time, he witnessed many atrocities first-hand and was plunged into a world of extreme violence with zero accountability.

Upon his return in 1763, he began to court a rich magistrate’s daughter; however, the young woman’s father did not approve and offered him his older daughter instead. Despite the arrangement, the two managed to develop a great fondness for each other, and de Sade would brag he was able to spend her fortune and teach her to relish the act of sodomy, his favorite bedroom activity.

As de Sade’s marriage evolved, he became bored of shagging his wife alone and was known to entertain both male and female sexual partners whenever possible. Whether his wife was aware of these transgressions is unclear; however, de Sade entertained many sorted parties at his French castle where orgies and homosexual encounters were common. When his wife’s sister began living at the castle as well, de Sade wasted no time taking her virginity and beginning a torrid secret affair with her that would eventually destroy his marriage.

Around the year of 1763, while living in Paris, de Sade began to develop a nasty reputation amongst the prostitutes living in the city. His mistreatment of these women was apparently appalling enough to send them running to the police, who then made detailed reports of his activities and put him under constant surveillance. Although sexually seasoned themselves, these women claimed de Sade was fond of brutalizing them with whips, canes, and hot candle wax, and violating them vaginally and anally with foreign objects of all sizes. These accusations led to a few brief incarcerations and his subsequent exile to his castle in Lacoste. Although his bad behavior would only intensify, this would be the beginning of a slow demise for The Marquis.

De Sade’s sexual transgressions began to escalate in severity. His erotic escapades became increasingly violent, and he could rarely find sexual satisfaction without seeing blood and hearing the screams of his partners. Not all of the participants felt the same, however, and based on the testimony of various women he abused, de Sade was sentenced to death for “unnatural crimes.” Instead of being captured, the sneaky de Sade fled to Italy with his trusted valet. It was during this time of banishment that The Marquis began to write two of his most famous erotic novels, “120 Days of Sodom” and “The Misfortunes of Virtue.”

Once the dust had settled from his most recent scandal, The Marquis eventually returned to France. Up until that point, his bad behavior had mostly occurred amongst partners who somehow willingly engaged. This was soon to change. On Easter Sunday in 1768, de Sade encountered a young beggar woman on the street and offered her a position “working” in his household. She assumed the role was that of a housekeeper and accepted his proposal. Once at his Chateau, his proceeded to rip her clothes off, throw her down, and tightly bind her hands and feet. He whipped her viciously and made several small cuts on her body where he poured hot wax and continued to beat her. This continued throughout the night until she finally escaped through a second-floor window.

The Marquis was declared insane by his family and permanently committed to the asylum at Charenton. Despite his familiarity with confinement, de Sade suffered greatly when he was put in solitary and deprived of his writing materials. Regardless of these physical limitations and his advanced age, he managed to begin a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl, whose father worked in the asylum. This affair would last about four years until de Sade finally died in 1814 at the ripe old age of 74.

And the rest is history.