While the marquis de Sade was drafting "The 120 Days of Sodom" in the Bastille, another libertine marquis in a nearby cell was also writing a novel one equally outrageous, full of sex and slander, and more revealing for what it had to say about the conditions of writers and writing itself. Yet Sade's neighbor, the marquis de Pelleport, is almost completely unknown today, and his novel, "Les Bohemiens," has nearly vanished. Only a half dozen copies are available in libraries throughout the world. This edition, the first in English, opens a window into the world of garret poets, literary...