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NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS CHOICE The captivating deeply reported true story of how one of the most notorious novels ever writtenMarquis de Sades 120 Days of Sodomlanded at the heart of one of the biggest scams in modern literary history

Reading The Curse of the Marquis de Sade with the Marquis the sabotage of rare manuscript sales and a massive Ponzi scheme at its centerfelt like a twisty waterslide shooting through a sleazy and bizarre landscape This book is wildAdam McKay Academy Awardwinning filmmaker

Described as both one of the most important novels ever written and the gospel of evil 120 Days of Sodom was written by the Marquis de Sade a notorious eighteenthcentury aristocrat who waged a campaign of mayhem and debauchery across France evaded execution and inspired the word sadism which came to mean receiving pleasure from pain Despite all his crimes Sade consideredthis work to be his greatest transgression

The original manuscript of 120 Days of Sodom a tiny scroll penned in the bowels of the Bastille in Paris would embark on a centuriesspanning odyssey across Europe passing from nineteenthcentury banned book collectors to pioneering sex researchers to avantgarde artists before being hidden away from Nazi book burnings In 2014 the world heralded its return to France when the scroll was purchased for millions by Grard Lhritier the selfmade son of a plumber who had used his savvy business skills to upend Frances renowned rarebookmarket But the sale opened the door to vendettas by the government feuds among antiquarian booksellers manuscript sales derailed by sabotage a recordbreaking lottery jackpot and allegations of a decadelong billioneuro con the specifics of which if true would make the scroll part of Frances largestever Ponzi scheme

Told with gripping reporting and flush with deceit and scandal The Curse of the Marquis de Sade weaves together the sweeping odyssey of 120 Days of Sodom and the spectacular rise and fall of Lhritier once the king of manuscripts and now known to many as the Bernie Madoff of France At its center isan urgent question for all those who cherish the written word As the age of handwriting comes to an end what do we owe the original texts left behind