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.
Jacques-Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont American colonies on 4 July 1776, emissaries were dispatched to France by the new United States revolutionary government to seek assistance from the French king. Although anxious to see Great Britain weakened, Louis XVI had to walk a political tightrope. He understood that support for the rebellion in America was a contradiction of France's global colonization policies and could spark a revolt in any number of France's own colonies. As such, the American delegation could not be officially recognized at the French Court. Sympathetic to the American cause for independence, Jacques Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont used his powerful position