Les Liaisons dangereuses

The Television & Movie Wiki: for TV, celebrities, and movies.

(Redirected from Les Liaisons Dangereuses)

Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) is a famous 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 composed entirely of letters written by the various characters to each other. Especially the letters between Valmont and the Marquise set up the story, but those of other characters serve as illustrations and give the story its depth.

The novel has been translated into English many times, with Douglas Parmée's recent translation (Oxford: OUP, 1995) generally being the preferred version. It is the origin of the saying "Revenge is a dish best served cold", a paraphrased translation of Laclos's "La vengeance est un plat qui se mange froid.".

1 Plot
2 Critical views
3 Adaptations
4 References

[edit]

Plot

The Vicomte de Valmont is determined to seduce the virtuous (and married) Madame de Tourvel, who is living with Valmont's aunt while Monsieur de Tourvel is away for a court case. At the same time, the Marquise de Merteuil is determined to corrupt the young Cécile de Volanges, whose mother has only recently brought her out of a convent to be married to a former lover of Merteuil. Cécile falls in love with the Chevalier Danceny, and Merteuil and Valmont pretend to want to help the secret lovers in order to use them in their schemes.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Merteuil promises Valmont that if he seduces Mme de Tourvel, she will spend the night with him. He expects rapid success, but does not find it as easy as his many other conquests. During the course of his pursuit, he discovers that Cécile's mother has written to Mme de Tourvel about his bad reputation. He revenges himself by helping Merteuil pervert Cécile. Merteuil also takes Danceny as a lover.

By the time Valmont has succeeded in seducing Mme de Tourvel, it is clear he has fallen in love with her. Jealous, Merteuil tricks him into breaking with Mme de Tourvel—and reneges on her promise of spending the night with him. Merteuil and Valmont declare war on each other. Valmont prompts Danceny to reunite with Cécile, abandoning Merteuil. In response, Merteuil exposes to Danceny that Valmont seduced Cécile.

Danceny and Valmont duel. Valmont is fatally wounded, but before he dies he is reconciled with Danceny, giving him the letters proving Merteuil's own involvement. Two of these are sufficient to ruin her health and her reputation, and she flees the country. But the innocent still suffer: hearing of Valmont's death, Mme de Tourvel succumbs to a fever, while Cécile returns to the convent.

[edit]

Critical views

Wayland Young notes that most critics have viewed the work as "…a sort of celebration, or at least a neutral statement, of libertinism… pernicious and damnable… Almost everyone who has written about it has noted how perfunctory are the wages of sin…" He argues, however, that "…the mere analysis of libertinism… carried out by a novelist with such a prodigious command of his medium… was enough to condemn it and play a large part in its destruction." (Young, 1966, 246)

[edit]