Writing and concealment in captivity
Sade was imprisoned at Vincennes in 1777 and transferred to the Bastille in 1784. Prison authorities inspected correspondence and manuscripts, while reading and writing helped organize his daily life. He developed The 120 Days of Sodom in captivity. In autumn 1785, he copied existing prose and outlines onto narrow strips of paper, noting at the end that the work had taken thirty-seven days.
The work was concealed. Sheets were pasted end to end and covered on both sides with tiny handwriting, allowing the manuscript to be rolled up and hidden. The scroll’s physical form responded to searches, limited space and secrecy. It also meant that later readers first faced the work of deciphering and organizing its text.
Four months in an isolated castle
The novel is set near the end of Louis XIV’s reign. Its opening describes war exhausting the country and population while enriching some people, then introduces the Duke of Blangis, his bishop brother, Durcet and the judge Curval. The four powerful men place a group under their absolute control in a remote castle, regulating four months through timetables, narration and punishment.
The plan comprises six hundred stories in four groups of one hundred and fifty, recounted in sequence by women narrators and interwoven with events in the castle. The introduction meticulously assigns characters, rooms and rules; the storytelling space is arranged like a stage and audience. Assault and sexual violence are governed by the powerful men’s rules. A defining structural feature is this juxtaposition of methodical arrangement and extreme violence.
A completed scroll and an unfinished novel
The surviving text is uneven. The introduction and first month contain relatively developed narration; the remaining three parts largely consist of numbered outlines. Sade left instructions to himself for future copying, including standardizing names, avoiding repetition and locating events in particular rooms. Such memoranda preserve the author’s working process beside the narrative.
The scroll records a writing plan still awaiting development. Thomas Wynn compares it with sketches and works of art brut, considering reading effects produced by repetition, arrangement and material form. Developed prose coexists with outlines awaiting expansion, allowing readers to see the organization of the work in progress.
The medical framework of the first edition
When Sade was removed from the Bastille in 1789, the manuscript remained behind. It subsequently passed into private collections and remained unpublished for many years. In 1904, German physician Iwan Bloch edited the first French edition under the name Eugène Dühren. The title page identified Paris and the Club des Bibliophiles and emphasized scientific annotations.
In his preface, Dühren said he used a transcription deciphered from the minute manuscript. He claimed fidelity while also explaining that he corrected spelling and filled omissions; brackets identified editorial additions. The edition carried two hundred and forty annotations. Its preface primarily addressed physicians, jurists and anthropologists, placing the fiction within contemporary research on sexual psychology. This editorial framing accompanied its entry into twentieth-century print circulation.
From bibliophile editions to literary study
Maurice Heine’s critical edition based on the original manuscript appeared in three volumes between 1931 and 1935. The BnF catalogue records financing by subscribing bibliophiles, a print run of three hundred and ninety-six sets and manuscript photographs. Its circulation continued to depend on small editorial and collecting networks.
Sade’s work entered the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade in 1990, reinforcing recognition of his literary status. Wynn nevertheless observes that recognition did not end controversy. His involvement in a Penguin Classics translation brought these questions to English-language readers. Medical case material, taboo reading, literary experiment and research object remained overlapping ways of approaching the work.
Preserving the scroll in a public collection
On 9 July 2021, the French Ministry of Culture announced that private sponsorship had enabled the scroll’s acquisition for the national collection and custody by the BnF. It joined the Bastille archives at the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, allowing the concealed manuscript to be studied alongside other records of Sade’s imprisonment.
Subsequent material analysis and conservation measured a scroll approximately 11.85 meters long, assembled from thirty-three sheets. Researchers identified two types of rag paper, iron-gall ink and animal glue. Fragile areas were reinforced with thin Japanese paper before digitization. Public custody preserves both text and object, providing a firmer basis for studying its creation, editorial treatment and reception.