- Paperback: 448 pages
- Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks; New edition edition (26 Nov 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0192838679
- ISBN-13: 978-0192838674
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 440,217 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
The Oxford World's Classic edition offers students an excellent introduction to this classic text and also important notes and chronologies. (Dr. Paraic Finnerty, University of Portsmouth. )
Product Description
The complex moral ambiguities of seduction and revenge make Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782) one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. The subject of major film and stage adaptations, the novel's prime movers, the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, form an unholy alliance and turn seduction into a game - a game which they must win. This new translation gives Laclos a modern voice, and readers will be able a judge whether the novel is as `diabolical' and `infamous' as its critics have claimed, or whether it has much to tell us about the kind of world we ourselves live in. David Coward's introduction explodes myths about Laclos's own life and puts the book in its literary and cultural context.
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Well, Sophie dear, as you see, I'm keeping my word and not spending all my time on bonnets and bows, I'll always have some to spare for you! Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
Well, Sophie dear, as you see, I'm keeping my word and not spending all my time on bonnets and bows, I'll always have some to spare for you! Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I just wanted to write a review about the Oxford edition of this book and not the penguin classic one, and the same reviews are under both books !?
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I have read the penguin classic version translated by PWK Stone, and I have just read the available pages on here of the Oxford edition, and its really is awful. The way it has been translated is clumsy and ugly, it sounds too modern...wheras the penguin classic version has been modernised but still retains some flavour of 18th century france along with being readable.
I would just suggest to anyone wanting to read this book to read Stones' translation and not touch this one, or at least read the first few pages of each and compare them. If I had started reading the oxford version I think I would never have bothered reading the book.
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I have read the penguin classic version translated by PWK Stone, and I have just read the available pages on here of the Oxford edition, and its really is awful. The way it has been translated is clumsy and ugly, it sounds too modern...wheras the penguin classic version has been modernised but still retains some flavour of 18th century france along with being readable.
I would just suggest to anyone wanting to read this book to read Stones' translation and not touch this one, or at least read the first few pages of each and compare them. If I had started reading the oxford version I think I would never have bothered reading the book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm amazed, these two principal characters that are the very incarnations of malice have incredibly salient and correct anecdotes about love and the beauty of sex considering they use it to humiliate others. While the woman (Merteuil) is an expert in deciphering and deconstructing human emotions and its repercussions, Valmont is a virtuoso of reading human reactions even in the slightest form of subtle and heavily-attempted hidden gestures; which enables him to translate it to the emotions of his hapless victims thereby making him a virtual mind reader that aids him to know what should be his next move. As incrementally subtle and as enormously persuasive he is in the arts of rhetorics and inconspiciously obsequious seductions, he invariably wins their confidence until he met his match in Madame de Tourvel who possesses all the qualities he lacks (virtue) but is most sought after of, for which he will use it to keep her conscious of how depraved her submissions to Valmont are but will still leave her unchecked that she still wouldn't be able to stop herself.
Apart from this, Choderlos' work is a reflection of how abusive and oppressive the French aristocracy was, with notable real life examples as Marquis de Sade and the Earl of Rochester. This also gave us a look of how the French monarchy was gradually declining in popularity until such reasons, with the latter as the catalyst, helped in fuelling the revolution.
Read it. And anyone else who would who love to see the insights of love and relationships, politics and pragmatism would be very interested to know how we could understand that even the slightest mistakes we so avoid in accomplishing our tasks will only add to the beauty of completing them. Knowing that in life, two factors that are of striking contrast will only enhance the candor and realistic nature of actions, whether in human nature or in words of love, when one professes it to someone personally that incoherency of words will only add to its coherence.
Apart from this, Choderlos' work is a reflection of how abusive and oppressive the French aristocracy was, with notable real life examples as Marquis de Sade and the Earl of Rochester. This also gave us a look of how the French monarchy was gradually declining in popularity until such reasons, with the latter as the catalyst, helped in fuelling the revolution.
Read it. And anyone else who would who love to see the insights of love and relationships, politics and pragmatism would be very interested to know how we could understand that even the slightest mistakes we so avoid in accomplishing our tasks will only add to the beauty of completing them. Knowing that in life, two factors that are of striking contrast will only enhance the candor and realistic nature of actions, whether in human nature or in words of love, when one professes it to someone personally that incoherency of words will only add to its coherence.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Wealthy, devious and bored the Vicomte de Valmont and Marquise de Merteuil have formed an alliance and begin a dangerous game of seduction and domination. Eager to preserve their reputations, Valmont as a libertine and Merteuil as a lady they act out their roles with passion and vigour. Yet by targeting the naive Cecile Volanges, the lovestruck Chevalier Danceny and the pious Madame de Tourvel the pair don't realise that in a game this deadly, the guilty will suffer along with the innocent.
I'm a long term fan of the movie Cruel Intentions so I've wanted to read the original book for a while just to see how it compares. Now I have I can completely understand the controversy and scandal that resulted from the publication of this book in 1782. I'm also amazed at the modernity of the story. I enjoyed the modern feel to the book, and if that is down to the translation alone then I applaud Douglas Parmee for making the book so easy to read, but it could be that the themes of love, lust and betrayal are universal.
Written as a series of letters between the main characters, the author does imply that these were real people and obscures the identity of various individuals and places, as well as the year the events take place in. However there is also a publishers note stating this is a work of fiction. Whether these characters or just people like them actually existed, the book remains a view on the excesses of wealth and twisted games played by those in positions of power.
Merteuil and Valmont are incredibly devious and twisted, playing their games with a kind of maniacal glee and delighting in the suffering they entail. Cecile is incredibly naive as is the Madame de Tourvel and they get swept along with Valmont's schemes without realising the danger they are in. But I ended up feeling sorry for Valmont who is as much a victim as a victor, caught in his own web and at the mercy of the viscious Merteuil.
All in all this was a great read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Plot: 9/10
Characters: 9/10
Ending: 9/10
Enjoyment: 10/10
Cover: 7/10
Overall: 44/50
I'm a long term fan of the movie Cruel Intentions so I've wanted to read the original book for a while just to see how it compares. Now I have I can completely understand the controversy and scandal that resulted from the publication of this book in 1782. I'm also amazed at the modernity of the story. I enjoyed the modern feel to the book, and if that is down to the translation alone then I applaud Douglas Parmee for making the book so easy to read, but it could be that the themes of love, lust and betrayal are universal.
Written as a series of letters between the main characters, the author does imply that these were real people and obscures the identity of various individuals and places, as well as the year the events take place in. However there is also a publishers note stating this is a work of fiction. Whether these characters or just people like them actually existed, the book remains a view on the excesses of wealth and twisted games played by those in positions of power.
Merteuil and Valmont are incredibly devious and twisted, playing their games with a kind of maniacal glee and delighting in the suffering they entail. Cecile is incredibly naive as is the Madame de Tourvel and they get swept along with Valmont's schemes without realising the danger they are in. But I ended up feeling sorry for Valmont who is as much a victim as a victor, caught in his own web and at the mercy of the viscious Merteuil.
All in all this was a great read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Plot: 9/10
Characters: 9/10
Ending: 9/10
Enjoyment: 10/10
Cover: 7/10
Overall: 44/50
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Devilish Delight
Dangerous Liaisons (or Les Liaisons Dangereuses as my title was) is really a tale of love, hate, and lavish deviousness. Read more
Published on 5 Feb 2010 by Simon Savidge Reads
A masterpiece.
Choderlos de Laclos, on the strength of this one book, was a master writer.
That this novel, written in 1779, seems so modern and fresh in 2009 is surely a mark of genius. Read more
That this novel, written in 1779, seems so modern and fresh in 2009 is surely a mark of genius. Read more
Published on 24 Mar 2009 by H. Carlton
My Favourite book ever!
I first got this book out off the library, I forget where i'd heard it mentioned but it sounded good. Read more
Published on 28 Mar 2004 by Jessica
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