My goal when writing about books is to get people to read them. This is the one exception to that rule. It is to inform that the book exists, but not to encourage it to be read.
For this article, my judgment “the worst book ever written” is not referring to poor quality. There are loads of books I’ve read with numerous typos, bad storylines, or poor arguments. In this case, I’m referring to a moral judgment. This is the most evil book ever read. Perhaps there are worse ones out there, but they lack popularity and influence. This one was popular, or popular enough to earn a Penguin Classics translation and to be banned by several governments. (And if you’re wondering why I decided to read such a terrible book, the fact that it got a Penguin Classics translation convinced me it had enough cultural significance to deserve to be read.)
The book is The 120 Days of Sodom, by the Marquis de Sade. Sade wrote it while he was imprisoned in the Bastille in 1785, hiding it in the walls of his cell. After inciting a riot, Sade was transferred elsewhere, leaving it incomplete (the first part is complete, but the last three parts are drafts). After the Storming of The Bastille in 1789, it was thought destroyed, but was found and eventually published in 1904, and thereafter translated into multiple languages.
Before explaining the book, its contents can be understood based on the author, Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade. Known for his extreme defense of libertinism and freedom from all moral constraints, the name “Sade” is where we get the term “sadism.” The very concept of deriving pleasure from the abuse and harm of others was named after Sade.
And that’s exactly what The 120 Days of Sodom is. It is the story of four wealthy libertines who lock themselves in a remote castle with several victims. They recount their stories to one another of previous sexual abuses of a wide range of abuses, which readies them to then engage in abuses with their own victims in the castle. As the months go on, the abuses get progressively worse, finally culminating in the murder of their victims. An Italian film adaptation, titled Salò, was released in 1975, and the 1930 surrealist film L’Age d’Or references it in the final scene.
The Marquis de Sade has been adapted into characters in media. He is a character (and is given a far too positive treatment in my view) in the game Assassin’s Creed: Unity. He is also the model for a character in Hellraiser: Bloodline, with the Cenobytes representing Sade’s philosophy throughout the series with a horror twist.
At this point it should be clear why I do not dare cite any quotes from the book itself. I write about it to explain it so that it may be known and avoided, and basically understood as a work with wide influence. But it cannot be recommended, nor should it be upheld positively, as so many shockingly have.