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...

If anyone's very short of time but wants to follow there's a 2 part BBC radio adaptation
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m000z5nm?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

I don't think it keeps the letter format though.

I’m in. I fell a bit behind with Ruth but have only two chapters left. I didn’t post much but have read all the discussions.
I made a resolution this year though - to not buy any books but read ones I have. This means breaking it.
Oh well. All in a good cause!!

Just place marking here, having finished reading Ruth. I read Dangerous Liaisons years ago and studied it as part of my OU degree. I can barely remember a flipping word of it, so looking forward to revisiting it. I saw the film with John Malkovich and Glenn Close in the cinema when it was released. I am old😬🤣

I think one of the bonuses of growing older is that you can revisit old favourites remembering that you enjoyed them but having virtually no remembrance at all of the plot. First time for me but everyone who's read it is very positive so I'm looking forward to it.

To be fair, that also applies to the books I read more than a month ago....

I’ve finally embraced my name change - kept having to re type as I posted so am
now AgualusasLover (StColumbofNavron) forevermore.

Bishy, thank you for the wonderful introduction. I like to believe if I lived in a previous life it was an utterly scandalous libertine.

I want to read it in French, because much like my coveted libertine lifestyle I also wish I could read French, beyond just reading the actual words but to appreciate literature.

I’ll prob opt for Penguin on Kindle too and am looking forward to the movie once done.

As some of you know, I love a good cover, so do
share, even if you opted for
Kindle.

Finished Ruth today and ordered my copy of this book.

I also remember the film so I'm excited to get started with this.

I did GCSE French and A-level German but I'm not sure I could read a book in either language now so I'm impressed with those who can.

Popped to the Oxfam bookshop and got an Oxford World Classics edition. Translated by Douglas Parmee. I am really looking forward to hearing from those reading in French too, I am always curious what is lost and gained in translation and literal choices vs choices and turns of phrase that convey the message and style of the original.

This is my copy from 25 or so years ago. I will probably get it on Kindle though, as the print is very small. Also I have never been great at holding a paperback in one hand and a cup of tea/glass of wine in the other. Much easier with a Kindle😄

Oh I like that. Very menacing.

The print is tiny, but I’ve reasoned it’s 2ish pages a day (prob an inevitability that at some point I download it too).

I have this copy! I read it for my French degree and barely took in a word in French so looking forward to reading this in English. I enjoyed the lectures on it though. Was always one of my favourite films (John Malkovich = swoon).

I am also a Kindle convert now due to font size and ease of holding it. Not losing my place due to never having a bookmark.

My (library) copy is the same!

i had no idea it was possible to hold tea in one hand and a kindle in the other. I’m nearly tempted to try a kindle, except I suspect I’d end up pouring my tea down myself.

The one hand kindle hold is a game changer. (Though I still buy my non fiction, writers I love in paper form).

I'm on Kindle too - the Penguin version - but have done a bit of browsing book covers. I loathe this one, which was used by Penguin and Folio, because it looks as though he is about to beat her, and she looks totally passive.

This is another Penguin version, which is better, though you could argue it's a very passive foot!

I thought this was two women, but just seen a bigger version and I think it's a man. But at least the recipient doesn't look as if she is being assaulted, even if she's not exactly pursuing the embrace.

And...not at all sure what's going on here but quite like the fact she's holding the door shut with a knowing look while incidentally falling out of her frock.

There are many, many more so feel free to have a look and share your favourites, or I might add some more later in the week.

I promise this really will be the last one from me today, but could not resist the combination of his manly calf kicking the door down and her matronly resistance. From a French edition of 1961.

I read this when I was younger but have long since lost the book so ordered a Kindle version for the readalong.

The cover is perfectly respectable

So many covers! Laughing at the 'manly calf'😅The one posted by Vicomte is the most respectable one by far. Nothing going on here at all.

I've downloaded two samples on Kindle. The French one looks awkward and cringy and passive.
The English one is a strangely romanticised image that seems out of place considering the others.

I might look around again before I buy these two.

Will ( belatedly) join you. Read it in English many years ago at uni and loved it. Interested to see how it is now and if I can cope with the slightly archaic french.

This is from a famously saucy image

Classics on Kindle are frequently bizarre. I think it's because people repackage out of copyright texts to try and make a bit of cash. I once bought an Oliver Twist that had been sifted through Google translate a couple of times and had no resemblance to Dickens. 😄 My Kindle copy of Ruth was touted as "illustrated" but the illustrations had NOTHING to do with the story. Luckily, they dried up after the first few chapters anyway.

Definitely more saucy and less passive there!