SADE, Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de (1740-1814). Autograph letter signed to an unidentified correspondent [Gauffridi, his lawyer in Apt?], n.p. [the asylum at Charenton], [24 September?] 1811, 8 pages, 8vo.

SADE, Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de (1740-1814). Autograph letter signed to an unidentified correspondent [Gauffridi, his lawyer in Apt?], n.p. [the asylum at Charenton], [24 September?] 1811, 8 pages, 8vo.

An intense cross-examination of his correspondent on matters concerning his chateau and estate [at Lacoste, which he had been forced to sell in 1796], and its administration by the new proprietor, Brosseli. The greater part of the letter comprises a string of questions -- 'De quelle nature sont les biens dont il a la ferme? ... en quel degré d'estime est-il parmi les habitans? Quelle sort d'animaux lui appartiennent?'; Sade also demands information on the 'usurper's' title to his property, amongst other questions, concluding with a brief passage of commiseration on the death of his correspondent's father and an obscure reference to his own uncle's ashes and his wish to be buried beside him.