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Aline and Valcour

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Aline and Valcour
"All the parts of this beautiful body were formed by the hand of the graces."
Illustration from a 1795 edition of Aline et Valcour
AuthorMarquis de Sade
LanguageFrench
GenreEpistolary novel
Publication date
1795
Publication placeFrance
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)

Aline et Valcour; ou, Le Roman philosophique is an epistolary novel by the Marquis de Sade. It contrasts a brutal African kingdom, Butua, with a South Pacific island paradise known as Tamoé and led by the philosopher-king Zamé.

Sade wrote the book while incarcerated in the Bastille in the 1780s. Published in 1795, it was the first of Sade's books published under his true name.

Bibliography

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The book was translated into English, German, Spanish and Japanese.

An essay titled "Observations on Aline and Valcour" by Alice Laborde appeared in the collection Sade, his ethics and rhetoric by Colette Verger Michael, New York 1989.

Blank darkness: Africanist discourse in French by Christopher L Miller (Chicago 1985) contains a chapter titled "No one's novel: Sade's Aline et Valcour".

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