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...

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!

Poor Cécile 😔 That was a difficult read.

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.

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...

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 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.

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.

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!

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

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

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.

Hello all! Just caught up with the book and the thread. Valmont is utterly revolting isn’t he - the rape and then his description of Cécile as ‘a child who should be treated as such’. And does he really say to MdM that as he’s going to be shagging MdT on the morrow he’ll be over for a quickie soon to celebrate? What a romantic. Then he’s back to stalking MdT. I do hope he gets his just desserts.

I was surprised by MdT’s letter to Madame de Rosemonde, how open she was (even though she does withhold the name!).

Place-marking on the thread.
Saying hi to @BishyBarnyBee as we haven't heard from you since your cycling trip. Hope all is okay Bishy.

I think we're on letter 108 today.
La Présidente is in a bad way obsessing over Valmont. She has taken it all upon herself. Her unhappiness is her fault and Valmont is blameless as he is a good and kind person. (Yikes!) What has happened to her? She seems to have lost all perspective.

Just posting a couple more Shmoop summaries:

Letter 103: Madame de Rosemonde to the Présidente de Tourvel

• Madame de Rosemonde isn't surprised at the reason for Tourvel's departure.
• She reassures her that she knows who the man is, even if Tourvel never mentioned his name.
• She tries to comfort her by observing that, even if Tourvel succumbs to temptation, she'll still have fought with all her might.
• She will gladly look upon Tourvel as her daughter.
• Before she signs off, she lets it slip that "he" seemed very sad about Tourvel's sudden departure.

Letter 104: The Marquise de Merteuil to Madame Volanges

• The Marquise thanks Madame de Volanges for her trust.
• She counsels her that Gercourt would make the better match for her daughter, having better prospects in life.
• She understands that Madame's maternal instincts make her want only her daughter's happiness.
• But passion, she says, comes and goes and shouldn't be trusted where marriage is concerned.
• Marriage is about mutual sacrifice, not the illusions of love.
• And Gercourt is a wealthy man; money doesn't guarantee happiness, but it makes it easier.
• And what if later in life, Cécile would wish her mother had been more firm in her insistence on a more settled and wealthy husband?
• She says that too many young women are so infatuated that they can't see their lover's flaws.
• When the infatuation wears off, everyone's miserable.
• She leaves it to Madame to decide, however.

I was surprised by Madam Rosemonde’s permissive attitude - God forbid you have the misfortune to succumb, but if you do, at least you know you tried to hold out.

I think I’d like MdM’s ridiculously contrived slur on Danceny as my epitaph - ‘kept good company solely because she could afford nothing else’. As though Danceny would have joined the Bullingdon Club if money were no object but was instead reduced to giving music lessons.

Yes - I was also surprised by the comment about succumbing.

I thought Mme Rosamonde would have been against Tourvel falling in love with another man and counselled her against it. It seems strange to me. They sound like a pair of teenagers!

Really happy to see the thread carrying on! Thank you everyone! I’m behind (again) 🙄 but am planning on catching up tonight when I get home from my mini break in Manchester.

Letter 105: The Marquise de Merteuil to Cécile de Volanges

• In a totally mean-spirited letter dripping with sarcasm, the Marquise accuses Cécile of acting like a child.
• She comforts the girl that not all men are like Valmont.
• Then she suggests that Cécile liked the experience more than she's willing to admit. Otherwise, why wouldn't have resisted as much as she thought she should?
• She tries to convince her that the best way to keep her virtue with Danceny, her true love, is to keep busy with another man.
• Next she counsels her to make friends with Valmont by making advances on him. After all, he's well-placed in society and could help out her prospects.
• She warns Cécile not to let her other trick her into admitting her love for Danceny.
• And PS, she shouldn't write everything she feels in her letters. She needs to play harder to get with Danceny.

Poor Cecile. Imagine receiving that letter from the person you confided in

This is a pretty evil letter! Telling Cécile that her mum will lock her up if she admits to being in love with Danceny!
And doesn’t MdM give herself away with saying that Cécile kept her eyes down? She knows that from Valmont?

Yes to both your comments Tara and Cornish! She is an evil wagon, ruining Cécile's chance of happiness. To think that Mme Volanges was so close to considering a marriage between Cécile and Danceny but for Merteuil's interference and malign influence. Her comments to Cécile are truly awful.

Letter 106: The Marquise de Merteuil to the Vicomte de Valmont

• The Marquise is obviously pleased with the Vicomte's seduction of Cécile.
• Having instructed the girl to give herself more to Valmont, she encourages Valmont to keep at it and push the sexual boundaries even more.
• The Marquise ridicules Valmont for not having forced himself on Tourvel when she obviously was ready for it.
• She thinks that between the two of them, they can make Cécile the shame of her mother and Gercourt.
• Note that Merteuil has taken a risk with her letter to Cécile—it incriminates her.

Well spotted @CornishLizard about the eyes down comment! I think you are right.