TITLE: Les Liaisons DangereusesAUTHOR: Pierre-Ambroise-Francois Choderlos de Laclos
STARTED: May 14, 2008
FINISHED: May 27, 2008
PAGES: 400
GENRE: Literature
FIRST SENTENCE: We think it our duty to warn the public that, in spite of the title of this work and of what the editor says about it in his preface, we cannot guarantee its authenticity as a collection of letters: we have in fact, very good reason to believe that it is only a novel.
SUMMARY: [From barnesandnoble.com] Love . . . sex . . . seduction. Of the three, only the last matters. Love is a meaningless word, and sex an ephemeral pleasure, but seduction is an amusing game in which victory means power and the ability to humiliate one’s enemies and revel with one’s friends. So it is for the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, two supremely bored aristocrats during the final years before the French Revolution. Together they concoct a wildly wicked wager: If Valmont can successfully seduce the virtuous wife of a government official, Madame de Tourvel, then Madame Merteuil will sleep with him again. But Madame Merteuil also wants Valmont to conquer the young and innocent former convent schoolgirl, Cécile Volanges. Can he do both?
When Les Liaisons Dangereuses was first published in 1782, it both scandalized and titillated the aristocracy it was aimed against, who publicly denounced it and privately devoured it. Today we still recognize its relevance, for what could be more contemporary than its appalling image of everyday evil — small, selfish, manipulative, and mean.
THOUGHTS: I really enjoyed this book, despite the fact that it seemed to take me forever to finish it. I kept reading and reading and, although the story was developing nicely, the pages didn't seem to get any closer to the end. Toward the end, however, the pages raced by as I rushed to find out how the story ended. Laclos's novel is uber-dramatic without hitting the melodrama level of an overacted soap opera.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses is told in letters. Unlike other novels of this ilk, Laclos's letters could have actually been written in a conceivable amount of time. The voices of all the letters also change depending on who is doing the writing. The text is witty, quick, and realistic. For me, it was also unexpectedly emotional. Toward the end, I was on the verge of tears.
The motivations of the characters are believable, even if those same motivations lead you to loathe certain characters of the book. The story is organic. It builds from the first letter and simply unfolds into an ending that, while somewhat predictable, is only ending their could possibly be. In many ways, this book is a character study. It almost seems as if Laclos created real people and we were simply given a window into their lives.
I wonder how different this book would have been if I read it in French. Good thing my French-speaking skills have dwindled to phrases like "mon petite fromage" and "le sange and dans l'arbre."
RATING: 7/10 [Very Good]
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