Florville and Courval, or The Inexorability of Fate

From the book “Crimes of Love, or the Madness of Passions.”

The scandalous name of the Marquis de Sade, the author of “immoral,” “detestable,” and “horrible” works, for many centuries was effectively banned. All-consuming, destructive passion that sweeps everything away on its path—burning even the lovers themselves in its flame—images of vice prevailing everywhere; the misfortunes of virtue, which often becomes a toy in the hands of debauched villains; sparkling, witty frivolous scenes from modern-to-the-author times—this motley kaleidoscope will appear before the eyes of true lovers of 18th-century French literature.