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

[BishyBarnyBee]

Following a series of successful Fallen Women readalongs - War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, Ruth - we continue our exploration of desire, hypocrisy, disgrace and redemption with the earlier (and even more scandalous) Dangerous Liaisons.

Widely adapted in text, film, opera and even ballet, Les Liaisons Dangereuses is an epistolatory novel comprising 175 letters.

Author Chodelos de Laclos "resolved to write a book that would be quite outside the ordinary trend, which would make a sensation and echo over the world after I left it." His book was a succès de scandale on its 1782 publication, reviewed as "diabolique" while becoming an instant bestseller. Marie Antoinette commissioned a blank cover copy for her library, and Virginia Woolf later read it with "great delight".

Readalongs are Mumsnet's best kept secret - a quiet corner of the site where we tackle the books we might not manage alone, sharing our thoughts and reactions, and encouraging each other to keep going when life - or the book - are challenging. It's fine to dip in and out as life permits, very few of us manage to keep up consistently.

We've only heard good things about DL, so do join us for a cracking good read. We start 1st May, 1 letter a day:

1 - 31 May Letters 1 - 31
1 - 30 June Letters 32 - 61
1 - 31 July Letters 62 - 92
1 - 31 August Letters 93 - 123
1- 30 September 124 - 153
1 - 22nd October 154 - 175

There are summaries of each letter at shmoop.com. I'll post them when I can, but anyone is welcome to start us off if you are first here on the day.

Looking forward to it!

Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) Summary

Free summary and analysis of the events in Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos's Les Liaisons dangereus...

Exactly, cassandre. I completely agree. It was a malicious act on Prévan's part. He knew what he was going to achieve; the destruction of a female friendship.

The shmoop summary is wrong. Even the words 'mistresses' and 'gentlemen' supposes that the women are adjuncts of the men. A small thing, but annoying. As if women couldn't be the focus of the story even this one time!

Letter 81 today. There is a lot to discuss.
(Will Shmoop be able for it?!)

Mme Merteuil; c'est une femme formidable! She is amazing. As she says at the end of this letter 'il faut vaincre ou périr' and she has no intention of losing.

More to the point, la Marquise does not intend to be beaten!

Letter 80: The Chevalier Danceny to Cécile de Volanges

• More whining from Danceny.
• Cécile is giving him less attention than he'd like.
• Love has become a torment to him. A torment.

Letter 81: The Marquise de Merteuil to the Vicomte de Valmont

• The Marquise de Merteuil ridicules Valmont for his lack of faith in her.
• He can't even begin to accomplish what she's done in her life. All his conquests have been too easy.
• Sure he's good looking (luck) and charming, but that's all he has going for him.
• He has really underestimated her, and she's not happy about it.
• She believes that men have it much easier than women in controlling their lives; it's too easy for them to be men's victims.
• Still, too many women give in to love and then are devastated by unfaithful men.
• Not her. She has created herself rather than being created by society's expectations of her.
• She gives a very long account of her ability to manipulate people without being manipulated herself.
• At the age of 15, she could read people better than most politicians and learned not to let her face give away her emotions.
• She learned only to reveal what she wanted to reveal, and was completely immune to others opinions about what she should do.
• She was naïve about sex, and decided to make a fake confession to a priest that she had done "everything that women do," even though she had no idea what she meant.
• The priest was so shocked that she figured it must be pretty exciting stuff that she should learn about ASAP.
• Fortunately, she was married soon after and learned what she needed to know with out having to have a risky affair.
• During and after her marriage she learned how to take pleasure from others and how to control her reputation.
• She pretended not to enjoy sex so her husband would never be suspicious of her.
• After his death, she carefully cultivated a reputation for prudery all the while plotting to become promiscuous.
• She was never afraid of her lovers because she always managed to find out some secret about them that she could threaten them with if they revealed their affair.
• In short, she can have Prévan, will have him, and she'll see to it that he doesn't speak against her afterwards.
• Throughout her life, her motto has been "conquer or perish."

Letter 82: Cécile de Volanges to the Chevalier Danceny

• Cécile scolds Danceny for telling her about how tormented he is. She doesn't think he has any reason to be upset with her.
• Giving him a taste of his own medicine, she blames him for her unhappiness.

I went ahead and posted three summaries as I'm so keen to discuss Letter 81. 😁

I note that the super clever Letter 81 is sandwiched between the juvenile ramblings of Cecile and Danceny. Laclos likes his contrasting effects.

Agreed, Fuzzy, Merteuil is formidable! Though maybe more formidable in the English sense of the word than in the French one.

Anyway, I like this letter because it shows how Merteuil's cynical wielding of power is a response to a patriarchal society that deprives women of agency. She arrives in her husband's arms as a teenage virgin (as Cecile is meant to do), but it's not pleasure she's interested in, it's knowledge. 'I had no wish to enjoy [jouir]; I wanted to know.' The French word 'jouir' can also mean to have an orgasm...

In some ways, Merteuil can be seen as a feminist icon, but the problem as I see it is that she thinks she's different and superior to all other women. So there's no feminist solidarity whatsoever.

Even her chambermaid is effectively a slave as Merteuil can send her to prison at any moment.

Her status as a widow is important; it means that she's not under the control of a man. (When you're an unmarried woman, you're under the control of your parents; when you're married, you're under the control of your husband.) This means she can control her own finances. And of course, the fact that she isn't a virgin isn't a problem.

There's also the theme of education here: she wasn't educated, so she has effectively decided to educate herself.

She doesn't believe in love; for her, sex is all about power.

Thanks cassandre. Yes,* *I agree. Merteuil has put herself up on a pinacle, but you would wonder if it isn't a lonely place. She said earlier on that she would have liked to make Cécile her confidante. I'm also intrigued about the reference to Valmont's secret.

I was glad to see Cécile kick back a bit in her letter to Danceny. Good for her.

Was intrigued when cassandre teased letter 81 and wondered if it would bring me round to MdM, but it hasn’t - there’s no sense of a Becky Sharp character doing what she needs to do. It is an eloquent letter and I agree that it stands out the more for being placed between Danceny and Cecile’s. I loved ‘In this unequal struggle our fortune is not to lose and your misfortune not to win’. But I’m struggling with the book - it’s like the W&P gambling scene being drawn out for a whole book - it’s the 18th century equivalent of setting out to get young girls to send nude photos just for the purpose of blackmailing them afterwards. MdM is congratulating herself on her cleverness and scorning people who open themselves to blackmail by writing love letters, but don’t her own letters incriminate her just as much? What she has on VdV better be good!

I completely overlooked the reference to the secret about Valmont, hmm. I have no recollection at all of how that plot point unfolds... gosh, my memory can be poor.

Cornish, I'm not a fan of Merteuil either. She reminds me of a certain type of woman who gets to be successful in a male-dominated world by becoming even more ruthless than the men are. I'm sure there are women like that in the corporate world. And I've encountered a few older-generation women academics like that, who could be very cruel (sexist, even) to younger women in academia (eg me!). It's like they learn how to play/manipulate the patriarchal structure, so rise to the top in it (not an easy feat), but make no attempt to change that structure. To me, that's not feminism. But I do think Merteuil is a fascinating character and very well-drawn.

I'm also finding the drawn-out read a bit excruciating. I want to say that there is a lot of interesting narrative payoff in the second half of the novel, as the webs of intrigue grow increasingly complex... but I don't want to raise expectations too much!

MdM is congratulating herself on her cleverness and scorning people who open themselves to blackmail by writing love letters, but don’t her own letters incriminate her just as much? Um, YES. No spoilers, but you might be being quite prescient here!

Thanks cassandre, that’s encouraging. It’s an interesting point about many professionally successful women. I suppose they have achieved within a system and therefore don’t want to challenge that system. With MdM though I don’t really see what is in it for her - it’s naked power play for its own sake rather than for material or career success?

I think there is an element of self preservation in it as Merteuil had to learn how to cope and how to survive in society where men wielded power. There was no-one to guide or instruct her. However, once she learned the rules of the game, it was all about being powerful and in control and she became ruthless.

I agree Fuzzy, I think Merteuil first learned how to wield power because she didn't want to end up a hapless victim. She wanted agency. But she also wants vengeance; there's her famous line, 'I was born to avenge my own sex and dominate yours.' (The reason she wants Valmont to sleep with Cecile, for instance, is that she has a grudge against Cecile's husband-to-be.' Cecile is just collateral damage in the grander project of getting vengeance against men.)

So as you say, Cornish, it's also power play for its own sake. It's not just a matter of survival; it's about pleasure and revenge.

This is the century of the Marquis de Sade as well... another writer for whom sexual pleasure is linked to domination and cruelty.

Letter 83: The Vicomte de Valmont to the Présidente de Tourvel

• He asks for another meeting with Tourvel. He's certain he could show her that he's not the bad guy she thinks he is.
• He appeals to her virtuous nature and claims that he's been misled all his life until he met her. Now he wants to become virtuous himself.
• Why should she be afraid of his love? He only wants to make her happy.
• It's he who should be afraid of seeing her again, because it would give her even more power over him.
• Even so, he's willing to make that sacrifice in order to tell her how he feels.
• What a guy.

Letter 84: The Vicomte de Valmont to Cécile de Volanges

• Valmont explains why he couldn't deliver a letter to her yesterday.
• He then asks her to get the key to her room kept on her mother's mantelpiece.
• He has a fake key to put in its place.
• He'll make a duplicate so he can get into her room.
• This would allow him to easily take and deliver the dangerous liaisons.
• He also suggests that she oil her door to keep its opening and closing quiet.
• Shmoop is getting a sinking feeling right about now.

Letter 85: The Marquise de Merteuil to the Vicomte de Valmont

• The Marquise conquers Prévan.
• She determines that she's the object of his lust by making him choose between her company and playing cards.
• (The guy must really love playing cards for this to be the decisive point for the Marquise.)
• They hang out in the company of others. Prévan speaks to her and another woman, but the Marquise can read the code in his words—the secret message in them for her.
• She pretends to be afraid of him. Apparently, men love this.
• She subtly suggests a place to rendezvous.
• They meet.
• The Marquise then arranges a chance for them to be secretly alone together after a card game.
• She's been carefully laying her trap in all her dealings with him, pretending to worry that they'll be discovered.
• They finally plan a way for him to sneak into her bedroom without anyone noticing. Prévan seems to be enjoying the hunt.
• To make it more convincing, the Marquise pretends to back out of the plan at the last moment.
• She then waits for the plan to play itself out over the next few days.
• On the arranged night, Prévan rushes to her room.
• As soon as he makes his move, she taunts him and clangs the bell for the servants. They show up en masse and one of them attacks Prévan.
• Prévan's led off under arrest and the poor wronged Marquise goes to her room to recover from the terrible trauma.
• Mission accomplished, and everyone's sure to hear about it.

Speaking of vengeance against men, Letter 85 is quite the doozy. I went ahead and posted it now even though it's actually the letter for tomorrow.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

@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.

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.

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.) 😁

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.

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...

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.

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. 😥

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 :)