Madame de Sade.

MISHIMA, Yukio.

Item Number: 111459

London: Peter Owen, 1968.

First edition of this play by Mishima. Octavo, original cloth. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Jacket design by Donald Smith. Translated from the Japanese by Donald Keene.

Madame de Sade is a historical fiction play written by Yukio Mishima based on the life of Renée de Sade, the wife of the notorious Marquis de Sade. It details the struggles of Renée, her family, and acquaintances during the Marquis' various periods of incarceration. All the onstage characters are female. After reading about Marquis and Madame de Sade, Mishima questioned why Renée waited until the Marquis was finally let out of prison to leave him. In March 2009 London's Donmar Warehouse staged a production at Wyndhams Theatre directed by Michael Grandage. It starred Rosamund Pike and Judi Dench as her mother, Madame De Montreuil. Frances Barber, Deborah Findlay, Jenny Galloway and Fiona Button co-starred.