August Books 11) Les Liaisons Dangereuses, by Choderlos de Laclos

[nwhyte]

I enjoyed this much more than On The Road. Even if I hadn't seen two of the cinema versions (the ones with Glenn Close and Sarah Michelle Gellar), I think I would have found this a compelling tale. At first it seems to be a straightforward tale of manipulation and hypocrisy, with Merteuil and Valmont exercising respectively feminine and masculine

Comments

[pr1ss]

When I read this, my copy included forward and afterward
notes. One of those posited that the the disasters at the end were a hastily tacked-on moral caution. That the book would have been too scandalous if the characters had simply gotten away with their amusements and it possibly would have been censored.

Of course without the ending, there would have been much less plot.