Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Pierre Choderlos de Laclos · 1741–1803 · France
Originally Les Liaisons Dangereuses (French)
Why it matters
Two aristocratic ex-lovers conspire by letter to seduce and ruin an innocent convent girl and a virtuous married woman, purely for sport and old scores. The Enlightenment's coldest, most devastating novel of manners, and a clear prophecy of the nobility's coming ruin.
At a glance
epistolarypsychological novel
Difficulty 5/10medium pace400 pagesClear eighteenth-century prose, though tracking who deceives whom across many letters takes care.
Deep dive
How two former lovers turn seduction into a shared literary project, drafting letters engineered for exactly one reader apiece — and what happens when one schemer starts believing his own performance.
