Dangerous Liaisons (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Pierre-Ambrois-Francois Choderlos de Laclos (Author), Helen Constantine (Editor, Translator)

Book Description

Release date: October 30, 2007 | Series: Penguin Classics

A new translation of one of the most notorious novels of all time

Published just years before the French Revolution, Laclos's great novel of moral and emotional depravity is a disturbing and ultimately damning portrayal of a decadent society. Aristocrats and ex-lovers Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont embark on a sophisticated game of seduction and manipulation to bring amusement to their jaded lives. While Merteuil challenges Valmont to seduce an innocent convent girl, he is also occupied with the conquest of a virtuous married woman. Eventually their human pawns respond, and the consequences prove to be more serious-and deadly-than the players could have ever predicted.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If this book burns, it burns as only ice can burn."
-Baudelaire

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 Dangeruous Liaisons was written. Helen Constantine has translated Theophile Gautier's Mademoiselle de Maupin for Penguin Classics which will be published in 2004 with an introduction by Patricia Duncker. And with David Constantine, she has translated a volume of Henri Michaux's poetry, Spaced and Displaced (Bloodaxe). She lives in Oxford.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (October 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140449574
• ISBN-13: 978-0140449570
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 1 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #256,379 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Still scandalous, 200+ years later May 14, 2011

By WingsandRings VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this for my Kindle after having seen the movie. I have to say, as much as I loved the movie, it's amazing how much is lost without the epistolary element; the way Laclos juxtaposes things -- Valmont's manipulative letters to Danceny's ardent ones, Merteuil's accusations against Prevan to what Valmont actually does to Cecile -- is something that one misses when the letters are taken out of the mix. If there is one flaw to the book it is the heavy handed way in which Valmont finally achieves his great conquest with Madame de Tourvel...after so much subtlety it seemed cheap and melodramatic to use the tactic he did.

This book is certainly dense, and there are entire letters which do not move the plot forward (Danceny's and Cecile's letters to each other are like a musical number in a pre-Oklahoma! stage show: they tell us more of what we already know, but rarely give us anything new) and one gets the sense that some things get lost in translation -- I especially felt that since I'm pretty sure I ran across several sentences that were just plain ungrammatical or generally made no sense, as if they'd been babelfished. However, I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a juicy, lascivious classic.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Putting the FUN in Dysfunctional May 25, 2011

By Gina Guillotine

Format:Paperback

Such corruption. Such ruthlessness. I love this book because I find the good guys so boring, and here we have perfectly delicious bad guys and gals doing horrible things to each other.

I've recommended this book to people, and only a couple have enjoyed it, but the others tend to read bodice rippers, and this one has sex and intrigue, but not in the typical way.

If you want fun and love among the ruins of an innocent's life, this is your book.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally on Kindle! October 11, 2009

By DB

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Finally a Kindle edition of de Laclos' masterpiece! The novel (adapted into a fine film with Glenn Close, John Malkovich, and Michelle Pfeifer in the 1980s) is one of the great works of world literature. Shocking in its sexual candor, even by modern standards, it offers great insight into the decadence of French aristocracy on the eve of the French Revolution as the two main characters set out to debase and destroy innocent lives - all for their own amusement.