Two hundred and thirty-one years ago this month, King Louis XVI of France lost his head. His execution by guillotine was a precursor of the Reign of Terror, a 10-month period from 1793 to 1794 when ...

Alyce Mahon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their ...

Philip Kaufman, the extraordinary director of "Quills," is on the other end of the phone. I'm playing devil's advocate about his fantasy of the final days of the Marquis de Sade, even though I like ...

More than two centuries after his death the works of the Marquis de Sade can still shock. This is itself somewhat surprising since our culture is saturated by sex and violence and the crimes of ...