18 h 12 minAudiobook11 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if every declaration of love is also a move in someone else’s game?
In eighteenth-century France, reputation opens doors and closes them. The Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont use seduction to punish enemies and control others. Merteuil plans revenge against a man who once rejected her: he now intends to marry Cécile de Volanges, a sheltered young woman just out of a convent.
Cécile falls in love with her music teacher, the Chevalier Danceny, while Valmont pursues the married Madame de Tourvel. Their letters reveal a world where affection invites interference and offers of help conceal private aims. In Choderlos de Laclos’s Dangerous Liaisons, a declaration can be sincere, calculated, or both—and trust leaves people exposed.
What you’ll discover
- Love turned into leverage Watch Merteuil and Valmont turn private desires into weapons in their contest for power.
- Letters with hidden purposes Read between declarations of affection, where sincere feeling and calculation can share the same words.
- The discipline of concealment Discover how Merteuil guards her thoughts in a society that grants men greater liberties.
- Innocence under pressure Follow Cécile and Danceny as their affection exposes them to people pursuing other aims.
- Devotion becomes a target Meet Madame de Tourvel, whose faith and devotion make her especially prized by Valmont.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like sharp psychological drama, clever villains, stories told through letters and diaries, and the manners and traps of high society in eighteenth century France.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Two schemers make a bargain
- Valmont hunts the virtuous Présidente
- A charity scene and a first confession
- Cécile and Danceny fall in love
- The letters turn into weapons
- Merteuil's trap for Prévan, and her own story
- Valmont takes Cécile, and Tourvel runs
- What the story is really about
- How the book is told
Who’s who
- Marquise de MerteuilA clever widow who hides her schemes behind a perfect reputation and wants revenge on the Comte de Gercourt.
- Vicomte de ValmontA famous seducer who treats love as conquest and sets out to win the unwinnable Madame de Tourvel.
- Présidente de TourvelA pious, happily married young wife who trusts too easily and believes she can reform Valmont.
- Cécile VolangesA fifteen-year-old fresh from the convent, eager for love and ignorant of the world, promised to Gercourt.
- Chevalier DancenyA sincere young music teacher and Knight of Malta who falls honestly in love with Cécile.
- Madame de VolangesCécile's anxious mother, who distrusts Valmont and tries to protect her daughter and her friend.
- Madame de RosemondeValmont's gentle, elderly aunt, who hosts Tourvel and offers her wise and kindly counsel.
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- Audiobook
- 18 h 12 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 11 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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Las amistades peligrosas
by Choderlos de Laclos · 1782
A marquise and a vicomte, once lovers, wager their wits on ruining a convent girl and a devout wife.
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In short
Dangerous Liaisons is a novel told entirely in letters. Choderlos de Laclos wrote it in the years before the French Revolution, and it follows a small circle of Parisian aristocrats who treat love as a game of conquest.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Two schemers make a bargain
The book opens with a letter from Cécile Volanges to her friend Sophie Carnay. Cécile has just left the convent, and she describes her new room, her harp and a comic mix-up with a shoemaker she took for a suitor. She is fifteen, sheltered and eager. Her mother is arranging a marriage for her, though she has not yet been told the groom's name.
Then comes a letter from the Marquise de Merteuil to the Vicomte de Valmont. She tells him to leave his aunt's country house and come back to Paris, because she has a plan. Madame de Volanges has chosen the Comte de Gercourt as her daughter's husband. Merteuil hates Gercourt, who once wronged her, and she knows his pride in marrying an innocent, convent-raised bride.
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What is Dangerous Liaisons about?
It follows the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, two aristocrats who use seduction as a game. They target a pious married woman and a convent girl, and their letters show how the game turns on them.
Why is Dangerous Liaisons told in letters?
The letter form lets each character speak in a personal voice and hide things from the others. Readers see the same events from several sides and know more than any one character does, which builds tension.
Who are Merteuil and Valmont?
Merteuil is a clever widow who protects her reputation while she plots in secret. Valmont is a charming nobleman famous for seduction. They were once lovers and are now partners and rivals in their schemes.
The author
Choderlos de Laclos
1741–1803 · French novelist
Pierre Choderlos de Laclos was a French novelist and army officer. He was born in Amiens in 1741. His novel Dangerous Liaisons was published in 1782. He served in the French army and later became a general. He died in Taranto, in present-day Italy, in 1803.
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