According to John Phillips, Emeritus Professor of French Literature and Culture at London Metropolitan University: Of all the direct expressions of atheism in Sade's work, the Dialogue... is probably the most incisive and, at the same time, the most artistically satisfying...
The influence of Sade's Jesuit training in rhetorical debate is the mainspring of this brilliant dramatic essay, which, as the title suggests, is not so much theatre as philosophical dialogue.
[3] On 6 November 1920, it was bought by Maurice Heine at an auction at the Hôtel Drouot, Paris, and he oversaw its publication in France for the first time in 1926[4] in a limited edition of 500 copies for which he wrote an introduction.
[3] For more on the Seaver/Wainhouse translations of de Sade, see Wyngaard (2013) [14]), Paul J. Gillett (1966 [15]), Nicolas Walter (1982,[16] reprinted 2001[17]), Margaret Crosland (1991 [18]), David Coward (1992 [19]) and Steven Barbone (2000[2]).
Buñuel had previously adapted The 120 Days of Sodom into a scene in his earlier L'Age d'Or (1930) and would go on to feature the Marquis himself as a character in La Voie Lactée (1969).
Unlike the original text, in this adaptation, as the two characters debate, sip wine, and ponder on the matter, Malena, Alphonse's imminent widow, plots her predatory revenge.