ABSTRACT
The Marquis de Sade is an exemplary figure for the surrealists, exemplary to the point of myth. Sade's work seems even to constitute a thoroughgoing refutation of the possibility of social revolution, at least in the terms sought by the Communist Party. This was even apparent to some at the time, notably André Masson, in his assertion that the surrealists needed to develop a physical idea of revolution, a revolution that combine social change with bodily and mental liberation. For Sade crime is thus not a transgression of the law, but a moral refusal of its authority. The violence of Sade's heroes is directed towards the weak and defenceless, pitilessly and remorselessly. Nor is Breton's position towards Sade as uncritical as Le Brun presents it. Breton was careful to define Sade as 'surrealist in sadism', but this is as much a limitation as a sanctification. Sade seems to accept without question the materiality of the world as the only reality.
