《索多玛120天》.pdf

索多玛120天
《索多玛120天》
作者:萨德
下载:多多电子书()
Introduction
The extensive wars wherewith Louis XIV was burdened
during his reign, while draining the State’s treasury and exhausting the
substance of the people, none the less contained the secret that led to the
prosperity of a swarm of those bloodsuckers who are always on the watch for
public calamities, which, instead of appeasing, they promote or invent so as
, precisely, to be able to profit from them the more advantageously. The end
of this so very sublime reign was perhaps one of the periods in the history of
the French Empire when one saw the emergence of the greatest number of these
mysterious fortunes whose origins are as obscure as the lust and debauchery that
pany them. It was toward the close of this period, and not long before the
Regent sought, by means of the famous tribunal which goes under the name of the
Chambre de Justice, to flush this multitude of traffickers, that four of them
conceived the idea for the singular revels whereof we are going to give an
account. One must not suppose that it was exclusively the low-born and vulgar
sort which did this swindling; gentlemen of the highest note led the pack. The
Duc de Blangis and his brother the Bishop of X***, each of whom had thuswise
amassed immense fortunes, are in themselves solid proof that, like the others
, the nobility neglected no opportunities to take this road to wealth. These
two illustrious figures, through their pleasures and business closely
associated with the celebrated Durcet and the Président de Curval, were the
first to hit upon the debauch we propose to chronicle, and municated
the scheme to their two friends, all four agreed to assume the major roles in
these ies.
For above six years these four libertines, kindred through their wealth and
tastes, had thought to strengthen their ties by means of alliances in which
debauchery had by far a heavier part than any of the other motives that
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