Les Liaisons Dangereuses - Couverture souple

Choderlos-de-laclos

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0451523040 ISBN 13 : 9780451523044

Editeur : Penguin Books Ltd, 1988

Synopsis

Book by Choderlos de Laclos PierreAmbroisFrancois

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

In this famous story of seduction, two highly intelligent but amoral French aristocrats plot the downfall of a respectable young married woman and a fifteen year old girl who has only just emerged from the convent.  The letters these two conspirators exchange are remarkably frank in describing how they manage to achieve their ends and, at the same time, reveal nuances of character which make it impossible to dismiss either of them as simply evil.  Those written by their victims are equally revelatory in a quite different and subtle way, while the manner in which Laclos handles the epistolary form in order to ensure that his two protagonists are finally defeated, not by outside forces, but the fissures in their own relationship, is a triumph of narrative skill.  This novel poses shrewd questions about the relation between love and sex, and suggests that, in certain sections of eighteenth century French high society, idleness, boredom and wealth had created individuals whose misfortunes it would be hard to regret when, only seven years after Dangerous Liaisons was published, the Revolution broke out.

Blurb by David Ellis

Présentation de l'éditeur

Published in 1782, just years before the French Revolution, Les Liaisons Dangereuses is a disturbing and ultimately damning portrayal of a decadent society. At its centre are two aristocrats, former lovers, who embark on a sophisticated game of seduction and manipulation to bring amusement to their jaded existences. While the Marquise de Merteuil challenges the Vicomte de Valmont to seduce an innocent convent girl, the Vicomte is also occupied with the conquest of a virtuous married woman. But as their intrigues become more duplicitous and they find their human pawns responding in ways they could not have predicted, the consequences prove to be more serious, and deadly, than Merteuil and Valmont could have guessed.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date d'édition: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0451523040
• ISBN 13: 9780451523044
• Reliure: Poche
• Langue: anglais