The title of this biography of the Divine Marquis is not meant to be ironical, or not entirely so. Although it would be hard to imagine a less domesticated being than Sade, Francine du Plessix Gray succeeds in portraying him as wholly, even splendidly, human. She places him squarely between two formidable women: his long-suffering and loyal wife ReneePelagie, and her relentlessly vindictive mother, Madame de Montreuil, who may have had feelings for her son-in-law deeper and darker than mere disapproval. The author tells the Sade story with verve, wit and much learning lightly worn, and the result is an elegant, rich read. Sade's life was scandalous and thrilling, and provides, as Gray has it, an "eloquent allegory on women's ability to tame men's nomadic sexual energies, to enforce civilization and its attendant discontents".