Nadia, like you I love 'Philosophy in the Bedroom'. But did you lend sufficient attention to the longish political pamphlet it contains, under the title 'Français, encore un effort. pour être républicains...' ('French, there's still work to do to be a Republic'.

Most readers skip it for the juicier parts, but it is still as shocking today as it was then (the book was written after the Revolution started, when it was still in fashion among the depraved nobility.) A systematic demolition of all values that you may cherish... Try it!

It is not his eroticism which sent Sade back to jail and the madhouse... Porn was quite an industry at the time... 'Fanny Hill' has SM and gay scenes galore... but his systematic anarchism was seen, rightly, as very disruptive.