Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) Analysis

Almost all of the action in Les Liaisons Dangereuses happens in the homes of wealthy individuals, in the city of Paris or nearby. A few scenes occur in carriages, at the opera, and at a convent.As...

Since the novel consists entirely of letters between the main characters, we have multiple first-person narrators and multiple perspectives and biases. We also get multiple purposes and audiences,...

Les Liaisons Dangereuses is an epistolary novel: it's made up of letters written by the main characters in the story to one another. We read a lot of "my dear" and "good-bye" and "I have the honor...

The tone of Les Liaisons Dangereuses varies with its different narrators. Madame de Merteuil and Monsieur Valmont are often playful and mocking when writing to one another. "Truly Vicomte, you are...

Entirely comprised of letters, Les Liaisons Dangereuses has the styles you would expect from private correspondence about very personal matters. As the writers vary in education and sophistication,...

Les Liaisons Dangereuses is French for "dangerous liaisons." The title is a play on words. A liaison is a secret sexual encounter, of which this book has plenty. The word also refers to the conten...

Everyone dies. Okay, kidding, but not by much. Valmont and Madame de Tourvel are both dead as an unintended result of Valmont's game. The Marquise is exposed as a vile a schemer. She loses a lawsui...

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...

The Marquise de Merteuil writes to Valmont to put aside whatever unimportant thing he's doing and to return to her so they can plot a way to humiliate the Comte de Gercourt, who's just jilted the M...

The Marquise de Merteuil, like a goddess of revenge (or like Anya the vengeance demon from Buffy), writes to her former lover, the sleazy Vicomte de Valmont, with a proposition. She wants his hel...

The Vicomte de Valmont prepares for a double seduction. For his own enjoyment, he plans to seduce and destroy the Présidente de Tourvel, a married woman known for her piety and purity of heart. As...

Maria-Antoinette owned a bound copy of this novel. (Source) The author, Choderlos de Laclos, intended the book to be a scandalous sensation that would be around long after he was gone. (Source) The...

Les Liaisons Dangereuses is one steamy novel if you catch all of the metaphors the characters use. There are lots of references to nudity and sexual intercourse, including rape. A courtesan's body...

Héloïse (1.33.4) Émile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (2.58.5) Le Méchant by Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset (2.62.7) Britannicus by Jean-Baptiste Racine (2.71.10)Samson and Delilah (2.81.36)Achilles (2...