Published by Routledge
Publication date: May 1995
REVIEW: by wh7371@bris.ac.uk from Bristol, England , 03/16/98
(taken from Amazon.com)
An unusual and captivatingly argued study That a professor of philosophy should write a book on de Sade, an author decried by the prudish and dismissed as tedious and twisted by those who fail to engage themselves with his philosophical concerns, is without doubt a step forward for the arts. Airaksinen argues in particular detail concerning such matters as anti-ethics, the meaning of perversion, political implications and literary style, and in so doing makes de Sade's concepts accessible to those of us who have never been able to read an entire volume. The mixture of informal, Americanised English and highly technical philosophical terminology can wrong-foot the reader on occasions, but Airaksinen's own theories and the source material he has assembled make for a very valuable read. W.Hoban --This text refers to the paperback edition of this title.