In 1772, the Marquis de Sade was sentenced in absentia after the Marseille affair, involving allegations of sexual abuse and poisoning. Though later legal details were complex, the scandal fixed his public reputation. It exposed the disturbing overlap of aristocratic privilege, violence, and libertine culture.

Sade became a dark reference point for writers exploring desire, cruelty, freedom, and power without moral restraint. Romantic, decadent, Surrealist, and modern poets returned to his name when testing the limits of imagination and transgression.