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  • The Study of Manipulation

  • This novel, which was written before the French Revolution, is told solely through the character's correspondences with one another. Some letters are less than enlightening (I found Presidente de Tourvel's and Valmont's bantering quite annoying), but these are minor glitches in a fabulous work that ... Continue

    This novel, which was written before the French Revolution, is told solely through the character's correspondences with one another. Some letters are less than enlightening (I found Presidente de Tourvel's and Valmont's bantering quite annoying), but these are minor glitches in a fabulous work that exposes the French aristocratic lifestyle.

    The Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil are two of the best villains ever created! They're heartless and destructive, yet everyone believes them sincere. They trap the naive in finely spun webs for mere entertainment. De Laclos provides a brilliant study on apathy that will leave you shaking your head in disgust.

    

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• ― MoirneStark said on Jul 10, 2008 | Add your feedback

In this special collector's edition of the French classic Les Liaisons Dangereuses, the Marquise de Merteuil and her accomplished rival in the art of erotic and psychological manipulation, the Vicomte de Valmont, take the stage again in Ernest Dowson's beautifully polished translation of the book which, as Baudelaire famously said, "Burns like ice."

In this new edition of the once infamous novel, the elegance of Dowson's translation is stylishly complemented by the elegant, coolly erotic etchings of Sylvain Sauvage, originally executed by that distinguished French illustrator for a deluxe edition published in Paris in 1930. Sauvage's artful renditions of scenes from the novel provide an elegant accompaniment for the darkly glittering luxury and decadence of le beau monde portrayed by de Laclos.

• 800 Literatureepistolaryfrench lit16-18th century lit18Ctranslationnovelfiction