De Sade was the consensual type? How did that idea get into your head? Have you actually read any of the books you mention?
- The 120 days of Sodom: A bunch of dominants locks themselves up in a castle with a bunch of nice, fresh, underage slaves, and proceeds to rape them, all the while telling interesting stories, many of which end in the death of the victim. Not very consensual.
- Justine: The protagonist is abducted, nearly condemned to death, whipped and otherwise abused through the whole book. Not very consensual.
- Philosophy in the Bouduoir: Ends with a woman being fucked by a man that has syphilis, and with her vagina being stitched shut! Not very consensual again.
It is also reported that in his private life de Sade had a penchant for whipping servants.
I mean, I like reading de Sade (the first and greatest engineer of sin) as much as the next guy, but old D.A.F. simply CANNOT be turned into a modern, sensitive, sane-safe-and-consensual BDSM guy.