Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Classics) - Softcover

Choderlos De Laclos, Pierre-Ambrois-Francois

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140441166 ISBN 13: 9780140441161

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1977

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

The Oxford World's Classic edition offers students an excellent introduction to this classic text and also important notes and chronologies. (Dr. Paraic Finnerty, University of Portsmouth.)

About the Author:

Choderlos de Laclos was born in 1741, at Amiens. He entered the army at the age of 18 and reached the rank of capitaine-commandant without seeing battle. In 1779 he was sent to the island of Aix, where 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' was written. He diedin 1803. Dr P.W. K. Stone was Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Kent at Canterbury.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1977
• ISBN 10: 0140441166
• ISBN 13: 9780140441161
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400