Marquis de Sade – Autograph letter to his wife.

Donatien Alphonse François de Sade (1740-1814). Marquis de Sade.

Autograph letter to his wife, Renée-Pélagie de Montreuil.

One oblong octavo page. October 11. Autograph address.

"I beg you to please stop having such thoughts about me; they drive me to despair."

A very beautiful letter from the Marquis to his wife.

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“You are quite right, Madame la Marquise, to say that there is nothing so foolish as a copyist. I recently had the pleasure of sending you some little verses that had been sent to me from Prussia ; I gave them to my secretary to make a copy for you. The fellow made eighty mistakes. I am not wasting a minute correcting his stupidity. I flatter myself that you will find this copy infinitely less bad than the last. If I am mistaken, please let me know, and I will look for a better copyist. This one, however, comes directly from Poland, or so he told me. If you were to have any reproach to make, I would be very sensitive to it and deeply affected that such ideas would enter your mind (…) When something is done badly, you must make me redo it, pointing out the fault, but I beg you, in your mercy, not to entertain such ideas about me again; They fill me with despair – and I embrace you with all my heart. I beg you to keep only this copy for me; the other must be burned. This 11th of October.