The secret journal which the Marquis de Sade worked hard at maintaining, even when ill and aging at the Charenton asylum in France, has been rediscovered and is now published in English for the first time.

The Ghosts of Sodom offers a unique insight into the workings of the mind of this aristocratic sadist and literary revolutionary. Sade was 67 years old when he wrote this journal (one in a series of four, two of which have yet to be rediscovered) during his seven years spent at the "hospital-prison." The journal reveals how his days were slow and grim, full of everyday preoccupations, worries about money, nasty quarrels with the people around him-but were also lit up by a final erotic adventure: the last flames of his senile passion. At the Charenton asylum, Sade's death approached, darkening the colors of his life and tearing apart his feelings.

The Ghosts of Sodom also includes a selection of Sade's letters from Charenton, as well as the working notes for his terminal novel The Days of Florbelle.

Still a controversial figure two centuries after his death, the Marquis de Sade is increasingly becoming thought of as a significant voice and a man for our times, rather than simply an aristocratic pervert. During his life, he spent a total of 27 years imprisoned on charges of obscenity as he consistently expounded his philosophies of "libertinage," a manifesto of sexual liberation and dominant theme of his works. Two major feature films based on the life of Sade were released last year.