Marquis de Sade surrounding Matthew Lewis' "The Monk", Minerva Press released "The New Monk" as a supposed indictment of a wholly immoral book. It features the sadistic Mrs. Rod, whose boarding school for young women becomes a torture chamber equipped with its own "flogging-room". Ironically, "The New Monk" wound up increasing the level of cruelty, but as a parody of the genre, it illuminates the link between sadism and the Gothic novel. Marquis de Sade Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814), was a French nobleman, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer, famous for his libertine sexuality.
Louis Alphonse Gassion Louis Alphonse Gassion Louis Alphonse Gassion (10 May, 1881 - 3 March, 1944) was a French circus performer and contortionist, with a background in theatre. He is mostly known as the father of the legendary French singer-songwriter and actress Édith Piaf. Gassion was born on 10 May, 1881 in Falaise, Calvados to a poor family. His father, Victor Alphonse Gassion, was a horseman in the circus, and his mother, Louise Léontine Deschamps, was the Madam of a brothel in Bernay, Normandy. He had seven sisters, two of whom died at a young age. He began his career in the circus