Did She Fall Or Was She Pushed? Dangerous Liaisons Readalong 2024

Thanks cassandre. I also hadn't noticed that she didn't name him, or that Merteuil received three accounts of the same night. I'm also on holiday so will blame the sunshine 😂

Very happy to see that Valmont has been stopped in his tracks by both women. If only he could give up now and leave them both alone.

Thanks Fuzzy! Both you and Shmoop are more astute than I am 😂I think the Mediterranean heat must be affecting my powers of concentration 😎

Thank you cassandre.
I noticed that she didn't name him. Just him...* *
Enjoy your holiday!

Agreed @FuzzyCaoraDhubh about the absolute cheek of Valmont in letter 99! He's the incarnation of male entitlement.

He feels equally or even more outraged when Tourvel unexpectedly ups stakes and flees him. That is quite a comical juxtaposition of letters by him: letter 99 where he is so boasty, and letter 100, where he can't believe he's been betrayed.

Poor Tourvel though. In some ways she's no better equipped to deal with feelings of sexual desire than Cecile is. It's interesting that she begs Rosemonde to be a mother figure to her.

I hadn't noticed till I read the Shmoop summary that she doesn't actually name Valmont in her letter to Rosemonde admitting she loves him; it's as though she's too ashamed to name him. Points to Shmoop for once!

OK, I've just posted summaries of a week's worth of letters! I'm sorry I'm so behind. I'm on holiday in the south of France (lucky me!).

If anyone else ever fancies posting summaries, please feel free to jump in and do so. I have trouble with regularity and routines as I said before...

Yes, the account of Cecile's rape is awful. (I'm going to call it a rape and not seduction!) What is even worse is the way she blames herself for not defending herself better 😥Clearly she has some feelings of sexual arousal and that's why she feels so guilty. But she repeatedly says no to Valmont and he disregards it.

The juxtaposition of different letters and different perspectives is striking again in this section I think. First we get Valmont's story of how he had sex with Cecile, then we get her account of it, and finally we get the perspective of her mother, who sees that she's very upset but misunderstands why. Ironically, all three letters are addressed to Merteuil, who is like spider in the middle of a cobweb holding lots of different strands of information.

Mme de Volanges' letter makes me a bit more sympathetic toward her. She actually puts forward a strong argument against arranged marriages. There's also that bit where she says that if she postpones the marriage with Gercourt, she would have time to 'study this daughter I do not know.' At the same time, the fact that her own daughter is a stranger to her is entirely her fault.

Letter 101: The Vicomte de Valmont to Aȥolan, his valet

• After scolding his valet for not informing him the instant Madame de Tourvel left the house, Valmont gives him a task.
• Aȥolan is to spy on Tourvel and offer to help out her letter carrier so he can divert her letters to Valmont. If possible, he should get a job as one of Madame de Tourvel's servants, the better to see everything that she says and does.
• He's to report back every detail concerning Tourvel and contact Valmont immediately if anything important happens.

Letter 102: The Présidente de Tourvel to Madame de Rosemonde

• At one in the morning, a tormented Madame de Tourvel writes to Rosemonde to explain her sudden departure.
• She's in love with a man not her husband and doesn't feel that she could resist much longer.
• She does not name Valmont, but she doesn't hide suggestive details either.
• She goes on at length about her love and her guilt. She feels she's thrown away her virtue.
• She sees only good in this man, and it destroys her to have to cut all ties with him.
• She's never known such love before and she blames herself for not nipping it in the bud.
• Tourvel asks her former host to adopt her as a daughter and protect her from herself.

Letter 95: Cécile de Volanges to the Vicomte de Valmont

• Cécile tells Valmont that she'll go through with the plan to get him the key.
• She's a little perturbed, however, that Valmont apparently suggested to Danceny that she no longer loves him.
• She asks Valmont to please use the key to deliver her letters to Danceny so he won't have to worry that she doesn't love him.
• She apologizes for her earlier fears about the key.

Letter 96: The Vicomte de Valmont to the Marquise de Merteuil

• Valmont congratulates the Marquise on her victory over Prévan, but he has just as big a success to share.
• He digresses to tell her how much he's enjoying his slow seduction of Madame de Tourvel and how she's walking toward her doom without realizing it.
• Here's his big success: Now having a key to Cécile's room, Valmont sneaks in at night.
• He feels entitled to her for all he's done for her and Danceny.
• He wakes her and forces her to have sex with him despite her tears and protests.
• He tells her that no one will believe she didn't consent. How else to explain the key she gave him?
• We get totally TMI about this encounter.
• The next day, Cécile looks pretty sad. Her mother and Tourvel are both worried about her. Valmont's enjoying this.

Letter 97: Cécile de Volanges to the Marquise de Merteuil

• In shock, Cécile writes to the Marquise, telling her everything that happened with Valmont.
• She blames herself for not trying harder to stop Valmont and for agreeing under threat to another rendezvous.
• She throws herself into her mother's arms, crying, but can't tell her the reason for her misery.
• She begs the Marquise for advice and asks her not to tell Valmont that she wrote to her.

Letter 98: Madame de Volanges to the Marquise de Merteuil

• Troubled by her daughter's behavior and worried for her health, Madame de Volanges asks the Marquise for advice.
• She writes that she's reconsidering the marriage proposal, not wanting her daughter to marry one man and love another.
• On the other hand, she dreads disappointing Gercourt, who was kind enough to offer marriage.
• She fears a marriage of convenience that would just lead to unhappiness and eventual cheating.
• She trusts the Marquise will give her wise advice.

Letter 99: The Vicomte de Valmont to the Marquise de Merteuil

• Cécile locks her door from the inside, preventing Valmont from getting in.
• He's irked at being outwitted by "a child."
• He has better success with Madame de Tourvel.
• An opportunity arises when he can talk with her alone in her room.
• She pleads with him not to speak of his love.
• So of course he does.
• She falls to her knees and prays, then turns to Valmont begging him in tears to leave.
• He raises her to her feet and she ceases to sob.
• Later that evening she sits with him as he plays cards.
• When they part that night she squeezes his hand.
• Valmont expects the game to be won the next day.
• He tells the Marquise to get ready to pay him his reward very soon.

Letter 100: The Vicomte de Valmont to the Marquise de Merteuil

• Madame de Tourvel has secretly left while Valmont sleeps.
• Madame de Rosemonde tells him she returned home for her health.
• Madame de Volanges doesn't seem to have been involved in Tourvel's sudden departure.
• Nevertheless, Valmont promises himself that he'll take revenge on her through her daughter.
• He can't believe how deceitful women can be. He's filled with rage and humiliation.
• It kills him that he can't tell anyone about it.
• When he gets his hands on Tourvel again, he'll have no pity. Who does she think she is?
• He'll make her feel everything he's feeling right now.
• He'll be sending instruction to his valet who still has access to Tourvel's chambermaid.

Letter 99. The absolute cheek of Valmont to be outraged that Cécile has barred him from her room! He frames it as if he was making some sort of a curtesy call 🤨 Also if he and Merteuil meet up, this would be his first 'infidelity' to La Présidente. Cécile doesn't seem to count for anything as she is only a 'ridiculous child'. Grr...

Yes poor Cecile, we need to brace ourselves for what happens next. From my dim recollections of the movie and play it's all taken in a much lighter spirit than we'd see it nowadays.

Poor Cécile 😔 That was a difficult read.

I found letter 89 quite shocking. "... The woman who retains a will of her own, does not love to that degree she ought." Thank goodness times have changed!

Agreed. I thought there was quite a difference in tone between Danceny's letter to Valmont and his letter to Cécile. He is much nicer to Valmont; more gracious and respectful. He isn't very nice to Cécile, the annoying little nuisance.

I noticed the line where La Présidente admitted her feelings for Valmont as well. I feel these two go round and round in circles. Even Valmont made a comment about to Merteuil about it a while back, this infernal rehashing or whatever his words were :)

Actually, I guess it's a big deal that Tourvel has finally admitted to Valmont (and to herself) that she has feelings for him.

It's nice to see Cecile pushing back a bit in her letter to Danceny (she complains of Valmont, 'it is always he who is right and I who am wrong!'). The dice are so loaded against her though: one teenage girl versus two older men. 😥

Letter 90: The Présidente de Tourvel to the Vicomte de Valmont

• Losing the courage to fight her feelings, Tourvel begs Valmont to leave. She's hurting.
• She doesn't know why she even allows herself to speak with him.
• It's clear that she's getting very desperate. She's falling apart.

Letter 91: The Vicomte de Valmont to the Présidente de Tourvel

• Turning her words against her, Valmont argues that they should be open and honest with each other about their full feelings.
• He wants her love, not her gratitude for going away.
• He feels accused and judged by her, when all he's done is to be submissive and respectful.

Letter 92: The Chevalier Danceny to the Vicomte de Valmont

• Danceny's worried sick that Cécile no longer loves him.
• He begs Valmont for every single detail he knows about her feelings for him.
• He asks Valmont's advice and puts everything into his hands.
• He apologizes for Cécile's lack of cooperation and thanks Valmont for his invaluable help.

Letter 93: The Chevalier Danceny to Cécile de Volanges

• Danceny gives Valmont a letter for Cécile in which he expresses his despair that she hasn't gone along with Valmont's sure-fire plan to help them meet.
• He begs for reassurance that she still loves him. If not, he'll just die.
• He can't understand why she hasn't responded to him and he begs her to save him from a life of grief.
• He ends the letter with another bout of "you don't love me/but you must still love me!"
• He's all over the place, crazy for love.

Letter 94: Cécile de Volanges to the Chevalier Danceny

• Cécile doesn't like being called a liar. She wonders what Valmont has been telling him that he thinks she doesn't love him.
• She says she'd been afraid to get a key for Valmont because she didn't want to get in trouble with her mother.
• She also doesn't like Danceny's siding with Valmont without first hearing her side of the story.
• If they're unhappy, she says, it won't be her fault.
• She tells him to just calm down already.

Belated thanks for your comments, Fuzzy! Yes, usually when it's the man's word against the woman's, she's the one who isn't believed. Even when rape happens, people tend to see it as her fault (in premodern times I mean). So I do find it satisfying on one level to see Merteuil pull off her trick, vile as it is!

I'll post some more summaries below. Not a lot is happening; Valmont and Danceny are still carrying out their wooing in parallel...

cassandre 😅

Thank you for posting the summaries.
It was interesting to see how Merteuil orchestrated the Prévan situation and to see the reaction of her friends to it. It was clever of her how she spun it round to make her appear to be the victim. Not a trace of evidence, just her word against Prévan's. Devious.

Letter 88: Cécile de Volanges to the Vicomte de Valmont

• Cécile politely declines Valmont's plan to obtain the key.
• Too risky, she says. And she's tried it before without success.

Letter 89: The Vicomte de Valmont to the Chevalier Danceny

• Valmont lets Danceny know that the delay is due to Cécile's reluctance to follow his instructions. He hopes Danceny will help her get with the program.
• He tells him that Cécile is simply afraid of her mother, who wants to ruin the relationship with Danceny.
• He emphasizes that he should rite to Cécile so she won't forget about him.

(Editor's note by cassandre: 'rite' [sic]. Shmoop's proofreader was napping again that day.) 😁

Letter 86: The Maréchale de — to the Marquise de Merteuil

• The friend who was with the Marquise when she dined with Prévan tells the Marquise that Prévan will never be welcomed in her home again.

Letter 87: The Marquise de Merteuil to Madame Volanges

• The Marquise recounts the invasion of Prévan into her bedroom—not telling her what actually happened, of course.
• She claims to have been absolutely shocked and scandalized by what happened.
• She wants to know Madame de Volanges' thoughts on the situation.

@Tarahumara, what you say about the difference between Thatcher and May is interesting. I first arrived in the UK (as a student) shortly after Thatcher's long stint as PM had ended, and I remember naively saying to a fellow student, 'At least she was a woman!' To which my friend responded scornfully, 'Yes, but what has she done for women? Nothing!'

I wasn't a fan of Theresa May either... but everything is relative; she was better than the PMs who came immediately after her!

I've fallen a bit behind again; I'll post some Shmoop summaries now and then try to catch up myself.

I'm a few days behind - just catching up.

Your description of Merteuil cassandre reminded me of Margaret Thatcher - the first female prime minister, but she was not helpful to other up and coming female politicians, and surrounded herself with men. Whereas Theresa May's cabinet had more women in it than any previous Tory government.

Thanks cassandre and Fuzzy, interesting points. The Prevan chapter sounds interesting, MdM is more on the side of right there!

i need to drop off for a few days and will catch up with you all again soon.

It's striking though that Merteuil and Valmont really need and want each other as an audience. It's important to Merteuil (for reasons of vanity perhaps?) that someone knows how clever she has been. Her boasting to Valmont perhaps suggests that she's more dependent on him than she would ever admit.

Exactly, Fuzzy, it's hard to feel sorry for him when he's already destroyed the reputations of the Three Inseparables, and was planning to do the same to Merteuil.

I'm interested in the way Merteuil puts so much emphasis at the end of the letter on spreading the story (or at least the version of the story that she wants to be spread). Gossip is so powerful. It's also evident that Cecile's mother is a huge gossip, since Merteuil says that sending a letter to her will be a sure way of making the story public.

Well, that's what I call a stitch-up!
Wow. You could feel sorry for Prévan but he's a total creep.

Agree with you both cassandre and Cornish about your comments on Merteuil and power.