What I love about this book, aside from the fact that it maintains a voyeuristic appeal through its epistolary form, is that it is cerebrally sexual.
Laclos' language is gorgeous and his subtlety is sublime. The book is wildly sexual but never crass or disgusting.
Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont are the absolute paragons of villainy that you will love to hate.
The book is at its simplest level a study of the total destruction of naivete and innocence, but you can be sure that just desserts will be served all around.
A fantastic novel...if only de Laclos had written more!
Also, the movie version starring Glenn Close and John Malkovich is wonderful as well--but of course, I recommend reading the novel first.

Now like most folks I sort of remember the film adaptation ("Dangerous Liaisons") as a vaguely enjoyable but stuffy costume drama. When some years ago a fellow seated next to me on a plane said "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" was the best book he has ever read I thought I'd give it a try. Well I finally got around to reading it. While it is decidedly NOT the best book ever it does have its moments.

The story involves a scheming pair of former lovers sharing their designs on capturing and destroying hearts of innocents around them. I can see when this book was written over two hundred years ago it caused a great scandal. While not explicit in language it leaves little doubt as to what is transpiring. Just when our nasty duo get close to capturing their prey everything unravels in an unexpected way (..no spoilers here).

Since the story is told in a sequence of over one hundred letters between the characters I'd imagine most folks would find this format to be a major turn-off. Admittedly the first half of the book is a bit tedious. However the second half is quite engrossing, making this book well worth the effort.


Bottom line: a unique book worthy of its reputation. Recommended.

"..engrossing..."

"...keeps the suspense mounting and the pages turning.."

"...delicious witty and gossipy..."

Alas - any of these blurbs still would sell this novel short, for it has all the virtues of your garden variety bestseller du jour - gripping plot, memorable characters, unconventional ending - and far more.

Simply put, Les Liaisons Dangereuses raised the bar of the epistolary novel so high it no longer exists. The subtitle, "Letters gathered in a Society" indicates a collection of the correspondence has been arranged by a "fictional" editor. The distinctive styles and view presented in each letter creates a polyphonic effect, where the reader is always better informed about the relevant situation than the authors of the letters themselves. The authors are not merely reporting events, they write in order to present themselves the way they intend to appear to their correspondents.

The nature of the composition of the novel has disposed of the "normative position" of the author, Choderlos de Laclos and preempted the moral imperative. The absence of a narrator or an authoritative narrative voice makes it impossible to locate the intentions of the author. As a result, moral ambiguity is the book's greatest charm. Its depiction of the base motives of the aristocracy was shocking, controversial and scandalous, for its authenticity in certain spots implied it was a roman a clef. The first edition sold out within days, nonetheless.

The Marquise de Merteil and Vicomte de Valmont are two letter writers who shrewdly and ruthlessly play a game where seduction is the name; psychological methods, the rules; erotic pleasure, the prize. They are the dangerous liaisons of the painfully naïve young girl, Cecile Volanges. She and the other authors, the Chevalier de Chanceny, Presidente del Tourvel, and Madam Volanges are pawns in the game of seduction. The twist is that the game backfires on the puppeteers of the drama and everyone else.

I thought the sweetest morsels were the scattered psychological insights: on people in general, the distinction between men and women and their socially appropriate relations to pleasure, the incompatibility between vanity and love. They painted a clever and cynical portrait of human nature, challenging the pretensions of society, the resonant echo of the maxims of the moralist La Rochefoucauld.

Some readers have proposed tragedy as the appropriate category for Les Liaisons, where fate is exceedingly brutal to the protagonists and shatters all possibility of redemption of life. In classic tragedies, the protagonist(s) are virtuous, yet that makes no difference as they are destroyed by external forces or by themselves. Both Marquise de Merteil and the Valmont are exceedingly vain, and this is their virtue of excellence as well as their fatal flaw. "Strong swimmers always drown." Because of the way novel depicts human society as something permanent, there are no apocalyptic overtones. The tragic end of the characters are somewhat absolved when society continues on, surviving their destruction. It could be argued that the excessive portrayal of the vain aristocrats was a condemnation of the aristocracy itself, which was thoroughly corrupt to the bone, a decadent society in its death throes where the Revolution was right around the corner.

I had seen the great film Dangerous Liaison's, so I was drawn to reading the original sourse material, I was at first taken aback by its being an epistolary novel, but I got used to that in short order and really enjoyed the book. Ancient Regime France is a perfect setting for a story of this sort. The intrigue and debauchary among the aristocracy was at its zenith during this time, is there any wonder the French Revolution was so uh, unpleasant. Really an interesting read and I totally recommend the movie Dangerous Liaison's and also the movie Valmont...frankly Firth and Bening cannot hold a gilded candle to the great Malkovich and Close, but it's fun to compare the two films and Valmont is not bad, it's just not Dangerous Liaison's.

I was inspired to read this after seeing it at the bookstore, shortly after I watched the movie with Glenn Close and John Malkovich.

This epistulary novel is only moderately erotic, it must be said. Its chief virtue lies in its wit; this is not an aristocratic Kama Sutra. This is made clear in the editor's Introduction, and readers with this in mind will not be disappointed.

As noted, the novel is epistulary, which is to say each chapter is actually a letter written from one character to another. At times this is frustrating, as it requires more work on the part of the reader to appreciate all the subtle character nuances. This is not an easy book to read (it's not difficult either), but it is well worth the effort.

There ought not to be any moral scruples about it. All the characters who engage in immoral behavior are punished for it or eventually moved to repentance. There is much to learn from this work with regard to the sanctity of love; as well, de Laclos's feminist thesis is subtly but convincingly put forth in an entertaining and yet heartfelt manner.

This is a novel I recommend to all; I wish I had read it before watching the movie.