Dangerous Liaisons - by Pierre Choderlos De Laclos (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A beautiful hardcover edition of one of the most notorious and entertaining novels of all time, a tale of feuding ex-lovers set among the decadent aristocrats of pre-Revolutionary France.

The Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont are jaded, predatory libertines--formerly lovers and now rivals--who amuse themselves with games of seduction and revenge using innocent human beings as their pawns.

Merteuil urges Valmont to seduce a sheltered convent girl for her own purposes, but he finds such prey too easy and bets her that he can gain the favors of a famously virtuous married woman, Madame de Tourvel. The prize if he succeeds will be a night with Merteuil herself. But while pretending to reform his rakish ways in order to win over the serious Madame de Tourvel, Valmont finds himself unexpectedly falling in love with his victim. Merteuil reacts with enraged jealousy, and the ensuing war between them leaves everyone's lives touched by tragedy.

Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket. Everyman's Library Classics include an introduction, a bibliography, and a chronology of the author's life and times.

About the Author

Pierre Choderlos De Laclos was born in 1741 in Amiens, France. He spent most of his career as an army officer in garrison towns, enjoying provincial society, writing light verse, and reaching the rank of capitaine-commandant without ever seeing battle. In 1779 he was sent to the island of Aix, where he wrote Les Liaisons Dangereuses, publishing it in 1782. He left the army to enter politics in 1788, just before the French Revolution, was imprisoned twice during the Reign of Terror, and returned to the army as a general under Napoleon in 1800. He died in Italy in 1803.