Simone de Beauvoir (in her essay Must we burn Sade?, published in Les Temps modernes, December 1951 and January 1952) and other writers have attempted to locate traces of a radical philosophy of freedom in Sade's writings, preceding modern existentialism by some 150 years.
Simone de Beauvoir no seu ensaio Faut-il brûler Sade?, aparecido en Les Temps modernes, en decembro de 1951 e xaneiro de 1952, e outros escritores, intentaron localizar vestixios dunha filosofía radical de liberdade nos traballos de Sade, precedendo ó existencialismo nuns 150 anos.