We've got your back. With the Tough-O-Meter, you'll know whether to bring extra layers or Swiss army knives as you summit the literary mountain. (10 = Toughest)
Basecamp (4)
On the surface, reading the Les Liaisons Dangereuses is no more difficult than following a very long Facebook conversation thread. The style is conversational and fairly easy to follow. Some of the letters have been enclosed in other letters, so sometimes it can get confusing regarding who knows what.
What makes the novel more difficult is the number of narrators and the fact that they're not always writing the truth. Just because a character said something happened or that he or she will do this or that doesn't mean it's actually the case. We're dealing with some regular liars here, and even the honest ones sometimes make errors about the facts because they don't have enough information. So you have to read between the lines, or the letters, that is.