1 00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:05,080 Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim 2 00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:10,320 Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised a warning 3 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:15,080 Speaker 1: before we begin. This week's episode contains mentions of graphic 4 00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:19,079 Speaker 1: sex and sexual violence. If that's not something you want 5 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:22,040 Speaker 1: to listen to, or if you are a younger listener, 6 00:00:22,239 --> 00:00:25,000 Speaker 1: I would encourage you to skip this episode maybe and 7 00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:34,680 Speaker 1: come back next week. Revolution was brewing in Paris. There 8 00:00:34,680 --> 00:00:38,239 Speaker 1: were mobs in the city streets, and on July one, 9 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:43,640 Speaker 1: seventeen eighty nine, if anyone in those mobs happened to 10 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:47,920 Speaker 1: look up at the Bastille, they would have seen a man, 11 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:52,040 Speaker 1: a prisoner, standing in the window of his cell on 12 00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:57,240 Speaker 1: the sixth floor, shouting down at them. Save the prisoners. 13 00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:01,520 Speaker 1: The man yelled, their throats are being slack, they're being murdered. 14 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:06,760 Speaker 1: You must help. They were dramatic words, words that the 15 00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:12,800 Speaker 1: prisoner was hoping would incite action. In actuality, the prison 16 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:17,040 Speaker 1: was nearly empty. The man shouting down from his window 17 00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:21,720 Speaker 1: was the only prisoner remaining in his tower. He was 18 00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:27,440 Speaker 1: short and wide, raggedly dressed as you might expect. If 19 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:31,080 Speaker 1: the mob on the street had squinted, they might have 20 00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:34,880 Speaker 1: seen that the prisoner was holding an object to his 21 00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:40,240 Speaker 1: mouth like a modern day megaphone, a metallic funnel. Even 22 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:43,640 Speaker 1: if they had seen the object, the people on the 23 00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:47,480 Speaker 1: street probably would not have guessed that the funnel was 24 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:51,800 Speaker 1: a piece of the prisoner's urinal though of course, use 25 00:01:51,880 --> 00:01:56,240 Speaker 1: of the urinal funnel to magnify his voice was entirely 26 00:01:56,320 --> 00:02:00,080 Speaker 1: functional in this case. The fact that this man one 27 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:05,240 Speaker 1: happened to be holding an object associated with bodily waste 28 00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:09,880 Speaker 1: up to his mouth is uniquely appropriate given who that 29 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:15,920 Speaker 1: prisoner was. His name was Dunisian Alphonse Francois, but he 30 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:19,440 Speaker 1: is better known as the Marquis de Sade. He is 31 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:25,240 Speaker 1: among the most infamous writers known to literary and cultural history, 32 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:30,360 Speaker 1: and among the most controversial for good reason, for his 33 00:02:30,440 --> 00:02:36,120 Speaker 1: writing depicting gruesome sexual tortures and violence that went as 34 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:42,160 Speaker 1: far as murder. His grisly sexual imagination is the origin 35 00:02:42,320 --> 00:02:47,840 Speaker 1: of the word sadism. Though never quite as violent as 36 00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:52,880 Speaker 1: his characters, his many stints in prison weren't just for 37 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:58,079 Speaker 1: his ideas either. The man poisoned and beat sex workers, 38 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:03,720 Speaker 1: and was credibly acute used of kidnapping teenage girls. The 39 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:08,480 Speaker 1: Marquis de Sade has been widely censored throughout history, and 40 00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:14,560 Speaker 1: is also published as a Penguin classic. He has been reconsidered, 41 00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:18,840 Speaker 1: redeemed and villainized in the changing political winds of history 42 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:23,400 Speaker 1: by everyone from Apolloniere to Simone de Beauvoir. He was 43 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:27,120 Speaker 1: a writer, above all, known for his libertine works of 44 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:32,760 Speaker 1: sexual violence, less known for his political and esthetic writings. 45 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:36,720 Speaker 1: And as the Marquis de Sade stood in the window 46 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:40,640 Speaker 1: of the Bastille the July that the French Revolution would 47 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:45,960 Speaker 1: reach its climax, shouting into the metallic funnel, he was 48 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:53,360 Speaker 1: also one more thing, perhaps surprisingly, a husband to a remarkably, 49 00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:58,800 Speaker 1: even strangely devoted wife, a pious woman married to a 50 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:03,520 Speaker 1: man who had had endless affairs, mostly with sex workers, 51 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:07,960 Speaker 1: but also with her own sister. And yet she had 52 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:14,840 Speaker 1: stood by him throughout his many violent indiscretions, his many imprisonments, 53 00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:19,760 Speaker 1: his burnings in effigy. As the Marquis de Sade stood 54 00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:23,480 Speaker 1: there in the sixth floor of his prison tower, screaming, 55 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:26,919 Speaker 1: he may have been able to guess that soon he 56 00:04:26,960 --> 00:04:30,839 Speaker 1: would be removed by the armed guards. In fact, he 57 00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:35,320 Speaker 1: was removed at one the next morning. He may not 58 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:38,320 Speaker 1: have been able to guess that he wouldn't be allowed 59 00:04:38,360 --> 00:04:42,679 Speaker 1: to take with him his library of six hundred books 60 00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:47,920 Speaker 1: ranging from Homer to Robinson Crusoe to Erotica, that his 61 00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:51,760 Speaker 1: wife had sent him by request. He may have had 62 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:56,600 Speaker 1: some sense that thirteen days later the Vestille would be 63 00:04:56,680 --> 00:05:00,520 Speaker 1: stormed and the French Revolution would begin in o earnest, 64 00:05:01,360 --> 00:05:04,640 Speaker 1: But surely Sod could not have known that he was 65 00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:08,600 Speaker 1: on the immediate precipice of losing the two things in 66 00:05:08,640 --> 00:05:12,239 Speaker 1: the world that surely he believed he would never be without, 67 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:18,400 Speaker 1: first the pages upon pages of his manuscripts, the scrawling 68 00:05:18,480 --> 00:05:22,560 Speaker 1: writing that he had kept secret and hidden during his imprisonment, 69 00:05:23,480 --> 00:05:31,440 Speaker 1: and second, at last, his once devoted wife. I'm Dana Schwartz, 70 00:05:31,960 --> 00:05:43,520 Speaker 1: and this is noble blood, all right, listeners, Right off 71 00:05:43,560 --> 00:05:47,560 Speaker 1: the bat, this is going to be an edgy one. 72 00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:51,719 Speaker 1: Before diving into the story of Sod, let's start by 73 00:05:51,760 --> 00:05:55,720 Speaker 1: acknowledging that sadism from the mind of the Marquis is 74 00:05:55,760 --> 00:06:00,279 Speaker 1: not the now sex positive and consensual s that you 75 00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:05,320 Speaker 1: might know from the contemporary acronym BDSM. Some of it 76 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:10,320 Speaker 1: starts there, but Sod's imagination goes far beyond even the 77 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:18,160 Speaker 1: most transgressive sex positivity into disturbing depictions of extreme tortures 78 00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:23,640 Speaker 1: so obscene and violent that I can't won't even suggest 79 00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:27,359 Speaker 1: them on this podcast. Fifty Shades of Gray is like 80 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:32,919 Speaker 1: a nursery rhyme by comparison. Sod himself told his lawyers 81 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:36,640 Speaker 1: that his books were quote too immoral to send to 82 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:40,240 Speaker 1: a man as pious and as decent as you. I 83 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:44,640 Speaker 1: needed money. My publisher asked me for something quite spicy, 84 00:06:45,200 --> 00:06:48,560 Speaker 1: and I made him a book capable of corrupting the 85 00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:53,240 Speaker 1: devil listeners. I can't give details of such works to 86 00:06:53,400 --> 00:06:57,680 Speaker 1: someone as pious and decent as you, nor would I 87 00:06:57,720 --> 00:07:01,440 Speaker 1: want to. What I can give is the story of 88 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:06,440 Speaker 1: the man behind those works. With that said, let's get 89 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:10,960 Speaker 1: into it. The Marquis de Sade was born on June two, 90 00:07:11,560 --> 00:07:16,840 Speaker 1: seventeen forty, in the house of his father's mistress. Don't 91 00:07:16,840 --> 00:07:20,440 Speaker 1: get me wrong, the Marquis was a legitimate child of 92 00:07:20,480 --> 00:07:26,000 Speaker 1: his married parents, but Sad's father, Jean Baptiste, only married 93 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:28,960 Speaker 1: his wife in the first place to get closer to 94 00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:35,200 Speaker 1: another woman, the Princess of Conde. Jean Baptiste loved the princess, 95 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:40,440 Speaker 1: but settled for marrying her lady in waiting, Marie like 96 00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:44,840 Speaker 1: his eventual son, Jean Baptiste, had also been arrested for 97 00:07:44,880 --> 00:07:50,840 Speaker 1: his sexual exploits with men, and Marie, unsurprisingly was rather 98 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:55,800 Speaker 1: absent from the household and from her son's childhood. In 99 00:07:55,920 --> 00:07:59,680 Speaker 1: a sad little incident from the Marquis de Sad's early life, 100 00:08:00,360 --> 00:08:04,400 Speaker 1: neither parent bothered to show up to his baptism, so 101 00:08:04,560 --> 00:08:08,080 Speaker 1: a pair of servants baptized him with the wrong name. 102 00:08:08,760 --> 00:08:14,600 Speaker 1: He was called Denisian Alphonse Francois, not Denisian al dunt Louise, 103 00:08:15,120 --> 00:08:20,440 Speaker 1: as his absentee parents had originally intended. At age five, 104 00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:24,480 Speaker 1: the young Sad moved in with his father's brother, who 105 00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:29,240 Speaker 1: scandalously lived with a mother and daughter with whom he 106 00:08:29,480 --> 00:08:33,960 Speaker 1: was both sleeping with. Sad had access to his uncle's 107 00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:40,640 Speaker 1: impressive library, which included Molieri, Hobbes, and books with titles 108 00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:45,240 Speaker 1: like The Bordello or The Everyman Debauched and The Good 109 00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:50,160 Speaker 1: and Bad Uses of Flagellation. In other words, this was 110 00:08:50,200 --> 00:08:55,040 Speaker 1: a child who grew up surrounded by promiscuous sex, for 111 00:08:55,160 --> 00:09:00,600 Speaker 1: whom the taboo was commonplace. This was the era after 112 00:09:00,679 --> 00:09:06,439 Speaker 1: the licentious Regency period in France, when so called libertinism 113 00:09:06,679 --> 00:09:11,360 Speaker 1: was common. The word libertine comes from the Latin root liber, 114 00:09:11,679 --> 00:09:16,439 Speaker 1: meaning free. A libertine was a person living without moral 115 00:09:16,679 --> 00:09:23,199 Speaker 1: or religious restraint, particularly in the bedroom. When sod turned ten, 116 00:09:23,800 --> 00:09:27,679 Speaker 1: his father sent him to a Jesuit school that disciplined 117 00:09:27,760 --> 00:09:32,559 Speaker 1: boys by flogging them in front of their classmates. Accusations 118 00:09:32,600 --> 00:09:36,719 Speaker 1: of sodomy also ran rampant at the school, which was 119 00:09:36,800 --> 00:09:41,120 Speaker 1: a criminal act at the time. Usually, when covering a 120 00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:45,400 Speaker 1: subject on noble blood, it's unnecessary to the story to 121 00:09:45,520 --> 00:09:50,479 Speaker 1: either report or speculate on the specifics of the individual's 122 00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:55,600 Speaker 1: sexual proclivities. But in the Marquis de Sad's life, his 123 00:09:55,720 --> 00:10:00,920 Speaker 1: own personal sexual activity is so inextricably linked to his 124 00:10:01,040 --> 00:10:04,640 Speaker 1: work and also to his life that I find it 125 00:10:04,760 --> 00:10:08,960 Speaker 1: actually does hold some relevance here. So whether or not 126 00:10:09,160 --> 00:10:13,480 Speaker 1: s'd first encountered sodomi at his Jesuit school, we know 127 00:10:13,760 --> 00:10:16,839 Speaker 1: that in both his personal life and in his writings, 128 00:10:17,559 --> 00:10:20,720 Speaker 1: for him, it was the only type of physical sex 129 00:10:21,240 --> 00:10:25,120 Speaker 1: that ever satisfied him, whether he was in prison or 130 00:10:25,160 --> 00:10:28,760 Speaker 1: in his marital bed, whether he was with men or 131 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:32,960 Speaker 1: with women. Young S'ad went on to fight in the 132 00:10:33,080 --> 00:10:37,280 Speaker 1: Seven Years' War, where his sexual appetites were so well 133 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:43,400 Speaker 1: known that his honorable discharge papers called him deranged. By 134 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:47,360 Speaker 1: the time S'd was twenty two, his father was desperate 135 00:10:47,400 --> 00:10:51,880 Speaker 1: to get him married off. Sad was therefore betrothed to 136 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:57,640 Speaker 1: a respectable young woman, Renee Pelege Montcre. But six weeks 137 00:10:57,640 --> 00:11:02,720 Speaker 1: before the wedding, Sada in Provence was writing letters to 138 00:11:02,840 --> 00:11:07,760 Speaker 1: a different woman he wanted her instead, of course, while 139 00:11:07,920 --> 00:11:11,360 Speaker 1: saying how much he loved her, he was also calling 140 00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:16,520 Speaker 1: her an ungrateful wretch and blackmailing her regarding the gonorrhea 141 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:21,960 Speaker 1: that he also had likely given her. So, surprise, surprise, 142 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:27,360 Speaker 1: his relationship with that woman didn't work out. Nonetheless, Sod 143 00:11:27,480 --> 00:11:30,280 Speaker 1: refused to come back to Paris to marry the woman 144 00:11:30,360 --> 00:11:32,960 Speaker 1: that his father chose for him, and the wedding date 145 00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:37,120 Speaker 1: was approaching. Sod's father knew what a mess he was 146 00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:40,439 Speaker 1: creating for the young Rene Pelage Montrell and her mother. 147 00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:45,040 Speaker 1: I pity them, he wrote, for making such a bad purchase, 148 00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:51,080 Speaker 1: capable of making all kinds of trouble. Finally, one day 149 00:11:51,120 --> 00:11:55,440 Speaker 1: before the wedding, Sod arrived back in Paris carrying the 150 00:11:55,440 --> 00:12:01,040 Speaker 1: then traditional wedding delicacy of artichokes. He married Peleget, who 151 00:12:01,040 --> 00:12:06,840 Speaker 1: stood four foot ten beside Sod's five foot two This 152 00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:10,240 Speaker 1: was a time when five ' four would be considered average. 153 00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:13,760 Speaker 1: But even so, sd was short. Make of that what 154 00:12:13,960 --> 00:12:18,680 Speaker 1: you will, and shockingly, the Marquis and his new marquise 155 00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:23,240 Speaker 1: actually seemed to really like each other like a lot. 156 00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:28,720 Speaker 1: Sod called her his beloved soul and dearest friend. Renee 157 00:12:28,760 --> 00:12:34,160 Speaker 1: Pelget came to at least accept, maybe even enjoy Sod's 158 00:12:34,240 --> 00:12:38,640 Speaker 1: particular predilections in the bedroom, which were, as I alluded 159 00:12:38,679 --> 00:12:43,679 Speaker 1: to before, not the type that would risk pregnancy. Biographer 160 00:12:43,760 --> 00:12:48,120 Speaker 1: Francine de Plusie Gray said that Renee Pelaget's utter adoration 161 00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:53,880 Speaker 1: for her husband quote has a legendary mythical streak. It 162 00:12:53,960 --> 00:12:58,520 Speaker 1: is akin to the devotion displayed by wives of Ogres 163 00:12:58,559 --> 00:13:02,839 Speaker 1: in European fairy tale. Of course, all of that love 164 00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:07,880 Speaker 1: and devotion wasn't enough to restrain the Marquis de Sade. 165 00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:12,200 Speaker 1: She had married the Marquis de Sade, after all, and 166 00:13:12,320 --> 00:13:17,800 Speaker 1: he was untamable. Three weeks after the wedding, Renee Peleget 167 00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:22,400 Speaker 1: was pregnant. Five months after the wedding, her husband was 168 00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:28,000 Speaker 1: in jail for the first time. It was a relatively 169 00:13:28,280 --> 00:13:33,000 Speaker 1: tame first charge. He had forcibly demanded that a sex 170 00:13:33,040 --> 00:13:36,280 Speaker 1: worker whip him, and he threatened to whip her in turn, 171 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:40,440 Speaker 1: all of which was actually kind of common practice at 172 00:13:40,520 --> 00:13:45,080 Speaker 1: the time for a married male aristocrat. But under threat 173 00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:48,560 Speaker 1: of violence, he had also forced this woman to speak 174 00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:53,640 Speaker 1: blasphemies against God. It was actually S'd's wife and mother 175 00:13:53,720 --> 00:13:56,559 Speaker 1: in law who worked to get him out of prison. 176 00:13:57,400 --> 00:14:00,280 Speaker 1: He was only there for three weeks, but even still 177 00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:05,760 Speaker 1: he considered his treatment massively unfair. Was a noble really 178 00:14:05,880 --> 00:14:08,720 Speaker 1: going to get in such trouble for how he treated 179 00:14:08,880 --> 00:14:14,920 Speaker 1: such lowly women. In August seventeen sixty seven, Sod's first 180 00:14:15,200 --> 00:14:19,280 Speaker 1: son was born. Eight months after that, Sod was in 181 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:23,680 Speaker 1: jail again, this time for seven months for the violent 182 00:14:23,880 --> 00:14:28,800 Speaker 1: coerced whipping of a woman named Rose Keller. By seventeen 183 00:14:28,920 --> 00:14:32,800 Speaker 1: seventy two, Sod and his wife had two sons and 184 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:36,960 Speaker 1: a daughter, and he was convicted for a third time. 185 00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:41,720 Speaker 1: He had given sex workers a candy that contained a 186 00:14:41,920 --> 00:14:48,040 Speaker 1: dangerously high dose of an aphrodisiac called Spanish fly, which 187 00:14:48,160 --> 00:14:53,440 Speaker 1: left at least one girl hospitalized. Spanish Fly is not 188 00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:57,800 Speaker 1: a euphemism. It is literally a bug a beatle actually 189 00:14:58,280 --> 00:15:02,240 Speaker 1: rumored at the time to increase arousal and even used 190 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:07,160 Speaker 1: as a treatment for various illnesses, including STIs at the time, 191 00:15:07,960 --> 00:15:12,360 Speaker 1: but it was also incredibly toxic, sometimes even deadly in 192 00:15:12,480 --> 00:15:18,280 Speaker 1: large doses. This time, Sod was sentenced to be burned 193 00:15:18,480 --> 00:15:23,320 Speaker 1: and beheaded, in a practice common for nobles at the time. 194 00:15:24,200 --> 00:15:27,840 Speaker 1: He was burned only in effigy, and the sentence was 195 00:15:27,880 --> 00:15:32,520 Speaker 1: considered complete. In the meantime, Sod was off in Italy 196 00:15:32,960 --> 00:15:39,840 Speaker 1: with a very particular mistress. His devoted wife's sister, Anne Prosper, 197 00:15:40,200 --> 00:15:44,000 Speaker 1: was nine years younger than her sister, and she was 198 00:15:44,120 --> 00:15:49,640 Speaker 1: infatuated with the Marquis de Sad. Still, Sod's wife stuck 199 00:15:49,840 --> 00:15:55,280 Speaker 1: by him. In seventeen seventy four, Sod had serious kidnapping 200 00:15:55,360 --> 00:16:00,680 Speaker 1: allegations levied against him. Renee Pelge covered for him, knowing 201 00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:05,120 Speaker 1: all along that he had in fact taken five young 202 00:16:05,280 --> 00:16:10,520 Speaker 1: teenage girls and one young boy servants into the dungeon 203 00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:14,560 Speaker 1: of his family chateau to have them act out depraved 204 00:16:14,760 --> 00:16:20,880 Speaker 1: scenes and orgies. Finally, in seventeen seventy seven, and with 205 00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:24,520 Speaker 1: the help of his once loving mother in law, Sod 206 00:16:24,800 --> 00:16:29,200 Speaker 1: was taken into custody. It would be the thirteen year 207 00:16:29,280 --> 00:16:35,320 Speaker 1: long imprisonment that eventually led him to the Bastille. For 208 00:16:35,440 --> 00:16:40,120 Speaker 1: a guy best known for his elaborate imaginations about torture 209 00:16:40,200 --> 00:16:45,160 Speaker 1: and restraint, SD did not take well to imprisonment. He 210 00:16:45,320 --> 00:16:49,680 Speaker 1: was not initially held at the Bastillo fortress. He was 211 00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:54,560 Speaker 1: first at a fortress called Vincenne cell eleven, with windows 212 00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:57,800 Speaker 1: just barely high enough for him to see a sliver 213 00:16:57,960 --> 00:17:02,480 Speaker 1: of sky above the fortress walls. The marquis wrote to 214 00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:10,160 Speaker 1: his wife constantly requesting incredibly specific items herivens, hemorrhoid creams, 215 00:17:10,520 --> 00:17:15,720 Speaker 1: face powder, toothpicks, cologne. She worked to send them, writing 216 00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:21,720 Speaker 1: letters that professed ardent and passionate love. Sometimes he returned 217 00:17:21,760 --> 00:17:26,240 Speaker 1: her affections. He wrote about his intense desire for her, 218 00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:32,760 Speaker 1: using euphemisms about his hem bow and arrow. He asked 219 00:17:32,800 --> 00:17:38,520 Speaker 1: her to send him cylindrical objects shaped in very, very 220 00:17:38,760 --> 00:17:44,920 Speaker 1: particular dimensions. But sometimes he turned on her. He blamed 221 00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:48,800 Speaker 1: her mother, correctly as it turned out, for his imprisonment, 222 00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:54,000 Speaker 1: calling her a venomous beast, an infernal monster, and other 223 00:17:54,119 --> 00:17:58,520 Speaker 1: epithets that I cannot speak on this podcast. He sent 224 00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:02,240 Speaker 1: his mother in law a letter written in his own blood. 225 00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:07,119 Speaker 1: In the height of irony, he accused Rene Pelaget's wife 226 00:18:07,440 --> 00:18:11,800 Speaker 1: of wearing clothes that were too immodest. As a result, 227 00:18:12,080 --> 00:18:16,320 Speaker 1: she went to live at a convent. It was Leap 228 00:18:16,440 --> 00:18:20,439 Speaker 1: day of seventeen ninety four when Sod was transferred to 229 00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:26,159 Speaker 1: the Bastille. Ironically, his tower was called the Tower of Liberty. 230 00:18:26,359 --> 00:18:30,159 Speaker 1: He was in an octagonal cell that he plastered with 231 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:35,480 Speaker 1: flowers and portraits of his family, almost like a dorm room. 232 00:18:35,680 --> 00:18:38,480 Speaker 1: By the end of his stay in the Tower of Liberty, 233 00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:42,400 Speaker 1: he was on the sixth floor, surrounded by six hundred 234 00:18:42,480 --> 00:18:49,359 Speaker 1: books in a bookcase. His collection included Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, Erotica, 235 00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:53,480 Speaker 1: and the book Dangerous Liaisons, written right around the time 236 00:18:53,640 --> 00:18:58,600 Speaker 1: of Sod's imprisonment. He also had dozens of pens and 237 00:18:58,800 --> 00:19:02,880 Speaker 1: blank notebooks. His wife had sent him all of it 238 00:19:03,600 --> 00:19:08,640 Speaker 1: because upon being imprisoned, Sod turned at last, in earnest 239 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:13,440 Speaker 1: to the thing that he would become most famous for writing. 240 00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:19,440 Speaker 1: Sod turned his wife into his research assistant. He would 241 00:19:19,480 --> 00:19:24,080 Speaker 1: ask her to find hotel names, streets, managers, and surrounding 242 00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:29,440 Speaker 1: settings in locations as distant as Lisbon and Madrid. Yet 243 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:33,800 Speaker 1: his letters also derided the writing abilities of the very 244 00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:37,120 Speaker 1: woman who was sending him the books and research and 245 00:19:37,440 --> 00:19:42,639 Speaker 1: strawberries and rosewater he requested to the Bastille. In one letter, 246 00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:46,520 Speaker 1: he wrote, quote, you don't seem to have bathed today, 247 00:19:46,880 --> 00:19:50,720 Speaker 1: for it is impossible to read anything drier than your letter. 248 00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:55,080 Speaker 1: In another, he wrote, You've sent me three pages of 249 00:19:55,240 --> 00:19:59,879 Speaker 1: idiotic ramblings, but it's in your manner to say stupidities 250 00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:05,240 Speaker 1: to have your reason go off track. Renee Peleget is 251 00:20:05,359 --> 00:20:10,840 Speaker 1: generally considered uneducated. Her writing is misspelled, and she certainly 252 00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:16,640 Speaker 1: didn't share her husband's famous linguistic dexterity. But she engaged 253 00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:20,919 Speaker 1: him in complex questions of law and ethics, and she 254 00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:28,320 Speaker 1: read and critiqued his manuscripts. She also probably accidentally misled 255 00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:31,720 Speaker 1: him in answer to some of his research questions. The 256 00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:35,439 Speaker 1: descriptions of foreign nations in the Marquis de Sade's books 257 00:20:35,480 --> 00:20:39,240 Speaker 1: are often wrong, and that's the evidence that the Marquis 258 00:20:39,280 --> 00:20:44,800 Speaker 1: de Sade's prison writings were actually reliant on his long 259 00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:50,720 Speaker 1: suffering wife. Of course, sod was still in prison when 260 00:20:50,760 --> 00:20:54,440 Speaker 1: he began writing his first book in seventeen eighty five. 261 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:59,280 Speaker 1: He had to be secretive. He wrote in frenzied three 262 00:20:59,359 --> 00:21:04,639 Speaker 1: hours from seven to ten pm. The night darkening outside 263 00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:09,240 Speaker 1: his window. As his hand trembled with excitement, he wrote 264 00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:14,960 Speaker 1: on five inch pieces of paper in tiny handwriting. There 265 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:19,720 Speaker 1: are many tales about books being written in ridiculously short 266 00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:24,679 Speaker 1: periods of time. Supposedly, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Jacqueline Hyde 267 00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:28,720 Speaker 1: in three days, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the First Sherlock 268 00:21:28,800 --> 00:21:32,880 Speaker 1: Home Story in three weeks, and fasad it took thirty 269 00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:37,320 Speaker 1: seven days to produce forty nine feet of writing. His 270 00:21:37,359 --> 00:21:41,679 Speaker 1: book was about two hundred and fifty thousand words, about 271 00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:45,320 Speaker 1: one thousand pages, more than double the size that would 272 00:21:45,359 --> 00:21:48,360 Speaker 1: make a modern agent or editor blanche if they got 273 00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:52,199 Speaker 1: it in the mail. That book was The one hundred 274 00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:57,159 Speaker 1: and twenty Days of Sodom, a catalog of every possible 275 00:21:57,400 --> 00:22:01,840 Speaker 1: sexually violent act. I cannot name them here. You are 276 00:22:01,920 --> 00:22:04,879 Speaker 1: welcome to look them up yourself. But if you are 277 00:22:04,960 --> 00:22:11,760 Speaker 1: imagining titillation, don't be surprised to find yourself repelled. During 278 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:15,359 Speaker 1: all this time, the seeds of the French Revolution were 279 00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:20,840 Speaker 1: about to bloom. Revolutionaries were preparing their muskets and sharpening 280 00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:25,000 Speaker 1: their swords. The Liberty Tower was emptied of all but 281 00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:29,680 Speaker 1: one prisoner, Its most depraved and one day most famous 282 00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:33,960 Speaker 1: the Marquis de Sade. He had been hearing the discontent 283 00:22:34,080 --> 00:22:38,200 Speaker 1: of the revolutionaries down below, and he was feeling bored 284 00:22:38,320 --> 00:22:43,040 Speaker 1: and annoyed, denied his daily walks. So at noon on 285 00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:46,920 Speaker 1: July one, seventeen eighty nine, he took the funnel that 286 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:50,159 Speaker 1: linked his urinal to the fortress, mote, put it to 287 00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:53,960 Speaker 1: his mouth, stood at his window and yelled down to 288 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:57,359 Speaker 1: the people below. The prisoner's throats are being cut, he 289 00:22:57,440 --> 00:23:00,880 Speaker 1: screamed down into the crowd. If the Marquis de Sad 290 00:23:01,119 --> 00:23:05,359 Speaker 1: is anything, it's consistent and his desire to provoke people, 291 00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:11,119 Speaker 1: to say scandalous things and get a reaction. Unsurprisingly, the 292 00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:15,040 Speaker 1: Bestille guards were not happy with him. At one am 293 00:23:15,119 --> 00:23:17,960 Speaker 1: that night, they seized him in his cell and took 294 00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:22,280 Speaker 1: him basically naked, to the convent of the Brothers of Charity. 295 00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:27,600 Speaker 1: It was, in Sod's words, an insane asylum. Sod was 296 00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:31,639 Speaker 1: desperate over the loss of his writings, which were still 297 00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:34,959 Speaker 1: hidden in his cell in the Bastille. He gave the 298 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,280 Speaker 1: police commissioner the right to open his cell as long 299 00:23:38,359 --> 00:23:42,080 Speaker 1: as his wife, Madame de Sad, was there. Sod assumed, 300 00:23:42,119 --> 00:23:45,720 Speaker 1: of course, that his wife would take his writings to safety. 301 00:23:46,720 --> 00:23:49,399 Speaker 1: But the Marquise had been having a bit of a 302 00:23:49,520 --> 00:23:54,639 Speaker 1: change of heart. We really don't know why. At long last, 303 00:23:55,160 --> 00:23:58,439 Speaker 1: the wife, who had stuck with Sod through all of 304 00:23:58,440 --> 00:24:03,000 Speaker 1: his troubles, finally changed her mind about him. What we 305 00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:07,520 Speaker 1: know is that on July fourteenth, thirteen days after her 306 00:24:07,600 --> 00:24:10,520 Speaker 1: husband screamed from the window of his cell and was 307 00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:15,960 Speaker 1: removed to an insane asylum, the Bastille was stormed and 308 00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:19,800 Speaker 1: blood ran through the streets of Paris. We know that 309 00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:23,240 Speaker 1: she was having mobility issues with her legs, and that 310 00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:26,199 Speaker 1: she was forty eight years old and married to a 311 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:29,240 Speaker 1: man who had spent the better part of their lives 312 00:24:29,280 --> 00:24:33,800 Speaker 1: together in prisons, and she was becoming more religious at 313 00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:37,479 Speaker 1: the convent she lived at. And we know that on 314 00:24:37,560 --> 00:24:43,480 Speaker 1: April first, seventeen ninety Sad was released. He was balding, 315 00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:49,000 Speaker 1: nearly fifty, wearing a ratty woolen coat. We can only 316 00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:53,840 Speaker 1: imagine the feeling of freedom after a thirteen year imprisonment. 317 00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:58,920 Speaker 1: He must have breathed in the fresh air exhaled, and 318 00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:01,600 Speaker 1: he had only one There's one thing on his mind, 319 00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:05,680 Speaker 1: his wife. Maybe he wanted to do to her. These 320 00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:09,040 Speaker 1: sexual things that he had described in his letters over 321 00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:12,639 Speaker 1: the years. Maybe he simply wanted to sit down together 322 00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:15,280 Speaker 1: to a good meal at a table where they could 323 00:25:15,359 --> 00:25:18,399 Speaker 1: stay for as long as they wanted. Man and wife 324 00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:22,640 Speaker 1: reunited at last. He went immediately to seek her out 325 00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:26,919 Speaker 1: and found her convent. He waited patiently for Renee Pelage 326 00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:31,800 Speaker 1: to come meet him. She never came. Your wife does 327 00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:35,879 Speaker 1: not wish to see you ever again, a messenger told Sod. 328 00:25:36,440 --> 00:25:41,560 Speaker 1: She wants a legal separation. Sad never again saw the 329 00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:45,639 Speaker 1: manuscript that he left behind in the Bastille. But the 330 00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:49,760 Speaker 1: bigger blow was the loss of his long suffering wife. 331 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:54,720 Speaker 1: As I said, we don't know for sure why Renee 332 00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:58,520 Speaker 1: Pelaget changed her mind at last. It's not as though 333 00:25:58,560 --> 00:26:03,719 Speaker 1: she had a shortage of But I will add one suggestion. 334 00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:07,960 Speaker 1: It must have been much easier to have a husband 335 00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:11,000 Speaker 1: like the Marquis de Sade. When he was in prison. 336 00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:15,399 Speaker 1: You could visit him and then leave him safely behind you, 337 00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:18,320 Speaker 1: where you knew you would find him the next time. 338 00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:23,000 Speaker 1: In prison, he could not be frequenting brothels and picking 339 00:26:23,119 --> 00:26:26,399 Speaker 1: up yet another venereal disease to pass on to you. 340 00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:31,159 Speaker 1: With him in prison, you had a modicum of control 341 00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:34,480 Speaker 1: in your marriage to a man who had so abused 342 00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:40,400 Speaker 1: and degraded you. For Rene Pelage, her husband's imprisonment must 343 00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:43,240 Speaker 1: have been a freedom that she could not give up. 344 00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:50,400 Speaker 1: A certain streak of karma would have had Sad live 345 00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:54,000 Speaker 1: out the rest of his days alone. But he quickly 346 00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:57,840 Speaker 1: met a new woman, thirty three year old Constant Quesnay, 347 00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:01,920 Speaker 1: who had a six year old son from previous marriage. 348 00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:08,359 Speaker 1: She became yet another inexplicably devoted partner. I know a 349 00:27:08,400 --> 00:27:12,240 Speaker 1: ton of amazing women who are still single today, and 350 00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:18,760 Speaker 1: this guy finds endless devotes. Love is not fair. It 351 00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:22,560 Speaker 1: was after Sad's stint in the Bastille, and after the 352 00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:25,679 Speaker 1: loss of his wife, that he wrote the works for 353 00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:29,960 Speaker 1: which he would become best known in his lifetime. Philosophy 354 00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:35,040 Speaker 1: in the Boudoir, Justine and Juliette were sexually explicit and 355 00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:41,439 Speaker 1: violent books that shocked society's sensibilities. Sad was free for 356 00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:45,679 Speaker 1: only eleven years before he was arrested again at his 357 00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:49,560 Speaker 1: publisher's office in eighteen oh one, this time for the 358 00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:54,440 Speaker 1: crime of obscenity. He spent another thirteen year stint in 359 00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:59,359 Speaker 1: the insane Asylum, still receiving conjugal visits from at least 360 00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:04,800 Speaker 1: two whims women until he died on December twond eighteen fourteen, 361 00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:11,240 Speaker 1: at age seventy four. He willed everything to his second partner, Constance. 362 00:28:11,880 --> 00:28:15,240 Speaker 1: He stated in his will that I trust the memory 363 00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:18,120 Speaker 1: of me shall fade out in the minds of all men. 364 00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:22,960 Speaker 1: Of course, that's not what happened. The legacy of the 365 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:27,680 Speaker 1: Marquis de Sade is extremely complicated. At various points over 366 00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:32,840 Speaker 1: the centuries, his reputation has been sanitized and resurrected as 367 00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:37,000 Speaker 1: a figurehead against censorship. At other points, his work has 368 00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:42,240 Speaker 1: been castigated for its misogynistic violence and censored all over again. 369 00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:46,680 Speaker 1: He is one of those lightning rod historical figures who 370 00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:50,920 Speaker 1: is endlessly used for the political ends of whichever movement 371 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:54,960 Speaker 1: wants to evoke him. He has been revisited by everyone 372 00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:59,280 Speaker 1: from Flaubert to Simone de Beauvoir. Mary Shelley may have 373 00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:04,080 Speaker 1: named her case character Justine and Frankenstein, after Sad's character 374 00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:07,920 Speaker 1: of the same name. The One hundred and Twenty Days 375 00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:12,760 Speaker 1: of Sodom was translated anew into English as a Penguin 376 00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:19,600 Speaker 1: classic in twenty seventeen. It is complicated to consider Sod 377 00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:23,600 Speaker 1: in the contemporary moment. Do we defend his works on 378 00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:27,920 Speaker 1: the basis of anti censorship and the virtue of sex 379 00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:32,800 Speaker 1: positivity or at least open sexual expression. Or do we 380 00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:37,000 Speaker 1: reject the works on the basis of opposition to misogyny 381 00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:41,760 Speaker 1: and violence against women, opposition to the author the sexual 382 00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:46,800 Speaker 1: coercion and violence, abduction and rape actually committed by the 383 00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:51,360 Speaker 1: man himself. And how do we even read Sad if 384 00:29:51,440 --> 00:29:55,640 Speaker 1: we do? Were his writings even meant to be erotic? 385 00:29:56,400 --> 00:30:01,400 Speaker 1: They may have been at least partly comedy, partly satire, 386 00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:06,360 Speaker 1: partly political commentary amidst the beheadings and power upheavals of 387 00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:11,560 Speaker 1: the French Revolution. Maybe Sad was an eighteenth century troll 388 00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:15,520 Speaker 1: and his works were just meant to be provocative for 389 00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:20,760 Speaker 1: the sake of provocation. Duplicit Gray writes that far from 390 00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:25,400 Speaker 1: intending to arouse the reader, the quote repugnance of the 391 00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:29,080 Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty days quote makes it far more 392 00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:34,240 Speaker 1: conducive to chastity. I have to be honest listener reading 393 00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:37,880 Speaker 1: Sod's works for this episode, I was second by his 394 00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:42,000 Speaker 1: treatment of his characters, especially the women, and I want 395 00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:45,640 Speaker 1: to be very clear about my opinions here. Often, when 396 00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:50,360 Speaker 1: researching a historical figure, I find myself ending with more 397 00:30:50,480 --> 00:30:53,920 Speaker 1: empathy for them than when I began. But in this 398 00:30:54,080 --> 00:31:00,120 Speaker 1: case I just feel disgusted and yet simoned. Above WHI 399 00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:04,640 Speaker 1: our mother of second wave feminism, wrote an essay arguing 400 00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:08,400 Speaker 1: that we should not burn Sod because he shows us 401 00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:13,400 Speaker 1: something important about the dark heart of humanity. In the end, 402 00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:16,880 Speaker 1: I think there's a way to believe that Sod should 403 00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:20,920 Speaker 1: not be jailed for obscenity in his writing, only for 404 00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:25,280 Speaker 1: his actions, to think that his works should not be censored, 405 00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:28,760 Speaker 1: and also to think that we need not celebrate in 406 00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:33,360 Speaker 1: order not to censor. The heirs of Sod may feel 407 00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:37,040 Speaker 1: the same. The line of Sod, which stretched back to 408 00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:42,360 Speaker 1: medieval times, stopped using the title Marquis after his death 409 00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:46,800 Speaker 1: in eighteen fourteen. Out of embarrassment. The heirs began to 410 00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:52,040 Speaker 1: call themselves compt instead, all the way until twenty fourteen, 411 00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:56,800 Speaker 1: when one heir chose to reclaim marquis again. Who knows 412 00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:01,920 Speaker 1: what time will bring whether future generations will once more 413 00:32:02,200 --> 00:32:18,000 Speaker 1: renounce their claims to the infamous Libertine. That's the story 414 00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:21,520 Speaker 1: of the infamous Marquis de Sade. But stick around after 415 00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:24,520 Speaker 1: a brief sponsor break to hear a little bit more 416 00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:29,000 Speaker 1: about the fate of his most famous Bestille manuscript and 417 00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:32,760 Speaker 1: how it actually became the one hundred and twenty Days 418 00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:47,120 Speaker 1: of Sodom. The Marquis de Sade never saw his one 419 00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:50,800 Speaker 1: hundred and twenty Days of Sodom again, and it was 420 00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:55,120 Speaker 1: never published in his lifetime. He died believing that the 421 00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:59,600 Speaker 1: manuscript was destroyed in the Bestille, But the fate of 422 00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:04,840 Speaker 1: the one hundred twenty Days was not so simple. Unbeknownst 423 00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:08,040 Speaker 1: to the Marquis de Sade, it was discovered and removed 424 00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:12,440 Speaker 1: by a Ciphilian two days before the storming of the Bastille. 425 00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:17,040 Speaker 1: It wound up published for the first time in nineteen 426 00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:22,280 Speaker 1: o four by a psychiatrist and sexologist based in Berlin, 427 00:33:22,800 --> 00:33:26,720 Speaker 1: who published it under a pseudonym. The book was considered 428 00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:32,480 Speaker 1: appropriate for medical and psychiatric use as a massive catalog 429 00:33:32,680 --> 00:33:38,959 Speaker 1: of sexual desire. In twenty fourteen, the original manuscript was 430 00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:44,160 Speaker 1: purchased for seven million euros by a Frenchman who had 431 00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:49,000 Speaker 1: literally won the lottery and was later arrested for running 432 00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:53,720 Speaker 1: a Ponzi scheme. In twenty twenty one, the French government 433 00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:58,680 Speaker 1: bought the manuscript for four point five million euros. The 434 00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:03,200 Speaker 1: obscene scroll that started its life in the Bastille is 435 00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:23,080 Speaker 1: now officially a French National treasure. Noble Blood is a 436 00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:27,920 Speaker 1: production of iHeart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey. 437 00:34:28,520 --> 00:34:32,320 Speaker 1: Noble Blood is created and hosted by me Dana Shworts, 438 00:34:32,680 --> 00:34:37,480 Speaker 1: with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zuick, 439 00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:42,319 Speaker 1: Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The show is 440 00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:46,840 Speaker 1: edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and rima Il Kahali, 441 00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:52,600 Speaker 1: with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers Aaron Manke, 442 00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:57,920 Speaker 1: Alex Williams and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, 443 00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:02,640 Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 444 00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:07,799 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.