Choderlos de Laclos Pierre – Les Liaisons dangereuses : Promis à la vie militaire en tant que cadet d’une famille récemment anoblie, l’officier d’artillerie Pierre Choderlos de Laclos végète dans des garnisons de province où il participe cependant à la vie mondaine. Déçu dans ses ambitions militaires, il décide de frapper un grand coup littéraire. “Je résolus de faire un ouvrage qui sortît de la route ordinaire, qui fît du bruit et qui retentît encore sur la terre quand j’y aurais passé …”...

In this famous story of seduction, two highly intelligent but amoral French aristocrats plot the downfall of a respectable young married woman and a fifteen year old girl who has only just emerged from the convent. The letters these two conspirators exchange are remarkably frank in describing how they manage to achieve their ends and, at the same time, reveal nuances of character which make it impossible to dismiss either of them as simply evil.

The complex moral ambiguities of seduction and revenge make “Dangerous Liaisons” (1782) one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. Its prime movers, the Viscount de Valmont and the Marchioness de Merteuil — gifted, wealthy, and bored — form an unholy alliance and turn seduction into a game. And they play this game with such wit and style that it is impossible not to admire them, until they discover mysterious rules that they cannot understand. In the ensuin...

The complex moral ambiguities of seduction and revenge make “Dangerous Liaisons” (1782) one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. Its prime movers, the Viscount de Valmont and the Marchioness de Merteuil — gifted, wealthy, and bored — form an unholy alliance and turn seduction into a game. And they play this game with such wit and style that it is impossible not to admire them, until they discover mysterious rules that they cannot understand. In the ensuin...

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"The Marchioness de Merteuil and the Viscount de Valmont are creations without precedent. They are the first [in European literature] whose acts are determined by an ideology." —André Malraux"One of the two greatest French novels." —André Gide"What really keeps 'Dangerous Liaisons' potent after two hundred years is not so much its depiction of sex as its catalog of corruptions, including but not limited to the corruption of language by polite cant and the corruption of morals...

Set in France during the Ancien Régime, Dangerous Liasons is an extraordinary tale of intrigue and moral depravity where our rival protagonists use seduction as a weapon.The Marquise de Mertheuil and the Vicomte de Valmont scheme and plot; one obsessed by her own vanity, the other by his lust for a virtuous, married woman. In the pursuit of their own entertainment, de Mertheuil and de Valmont play a dangerous game of seduction, attempting ...

Dangerous Liaisons = Les Liaisons dangereuses is a French epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, first published in four volumes by Durand Neveu from March 23, 1782.It is the story of the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, two rivals (and ex-lovers) who use seduction as a weapon to humiliate and degrade others, all the while enjoying their cruel games and boasting about their manipulative talents. It has been claimed to depict the decadence of the French aris...

Published in 1782, just years before the French Revolution, Les Liaisons Dangereuses is a disturbing and ultimately damning portrayal of a decadent society. At its centre are two aristocrats, former lovers, who embark on a sophisticated game of seduction and manipulation to bring amusement to their jaded existences. While the Marquise de Merteuil challenges the Vicomte de Valmont to seduce an innocent convent girl, the Vicomte is also occupied with the conquest of a virtuous married woman....

Pierre Choderlos de Laclos produced Dangerous Liaisons in an effort to “write a work which departed from the ordinary, which made a noise, and which would remain on this earth after his death.” He did just that. First published in 1782 in four volumes, Dangerous Liaisons was an immediate success, and has since inspired a large number of literary commentaries, plays, and films. The novel is an epistolary piece, written as letters between members of the French noble class. ...

The complex moral ambiguities of seduction and revenge make Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782) one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. The subject of major film and stage adaptations, the novel's prime movers, the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, form an unholy alliance and turn seduction into a game - a game which they must winPierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos was a French novelist, official and army general, best known f...

Pierre Choderlos de Laclos produced "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" in an effort to "write a work which departed from the ordinary, which made a noise, and which would remain on this earth after his death." He did just that. First published in 1782 in four volumes, "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" was an immediate success, and has since inspired a large number of literary commentaries, plays, and films. The novel is an epistolary piece, written as letters between members of the French noble class. An...