La troisième femme

Abstract

This article proposes a new threefold reading perspective on Sade’s novels. We propose firstly to read the character Léonore from Aline et Valcour as emblematic of an aesthetics of the turn of the eighteenth century; secondly, to unfold the idea of a feminine “triumvirate” (Justine, Juliette and Léonore) instead of the commonly assumed duality (Justine and Juliette) in Sade, based on the revised understanding of Léonore; and, thirdly, to point out the obvious recurrence of the feminine triptych in Sade’s historical novels La Marquise de Gange, Adélaïde de Brunswick and Isabelle de Bavière. There are actually three instead of two myths of the feminine in the imaginary universe of the marquis de Sade. Thus, Léonore and Adélaïde represent what could be called a “third Sadean sex/gender,” the only authentic literary utopian vision of the “woman of the future” responding to the new reality of the post-revolutionary era.

Keywords

• turn of the eighteenth century
• Marquis de Sade
• historical novel
• post-revolutionary literature