Pierre Choderlos de Laclos: Les Liaisons Dangereuses

[member 737]

To prepare a ground for discussion on dangerous Liaisons by de Laclos, here are some questions:

1. Was Valmont really in love with Madame de Tourfel?

2. Is Cecily a material for a second Marquise in the future?

3. Why did Valmont do anything that Marquise wanted him to do?

5. Why did Valmont commit suicide?

6. Does the ending - Marquise's disease - match the rest of the book? Why was it introduced?

7. Why did the demoralised society condemn Marquise? Was it a condemnation of her misdeeds, or making them public?

 

[Blindsided]

Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

"Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) is a French epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, first published in 1782.

The book fascinates with its dark undertones. It is the story of the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, two rivals who use sex as a weapon to humiliate and degrade others, all the while enjoying their cruel games. It also depicts the decadence of the French aristocracy shortly before the French Revolution; thus it is seen as a work that exposes the perversions of the so-called Ancien Régime.

The book is an epistolary novel, composed entirely of letters written by the various characters to each other. In particular, the letters between Valmont and the Marquise drive the plot, with those of other characters serving as illustrations to give the story its depth."

Les Liaisons dangereuses - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Any of you read it? It's pretty good.

 

[Litany]

I've read it. It was pretty saucy considering the year in which it was written. Usually I hate the epistolary form, but there were enough different voices that it didn't grate on my nerves too much. Apart from that though, I read it so long ago that I don't remember many specifics.