Dangerous Liaisons

Dangerous Liaisons, novel by French author Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, first published in 1782 as Les Liaisons dangereuses. The work, also translated as Dangerous Acquaintances, is considered one of the earliest examples of the psychological novel.

Laclos’s first novel, Dangerous Liaisons caused an immediate sensation. Written in epistolary form (i.e., as a series of letters), it deals with the ruthless seducer Valmont and his accomplice, Madame de Merteuil, who surpasses him in decadence and evil. Both take unscrupulous delight in their victims’ misery, their pleasure being proportional to the difficulty of the conquest. Madame de Merteuil, secretly seeking vengeance for Valmont’s earlier rejection of her, masterfully arranges for Valmont’s death at her current lover’s hand. She revels in his death and in the destruction of others yet is herself destroyed in the end: ostracized for her machinations, disfigured by smallpox, and left in financial ruin.

The novel has been adapted many times for the stage and screen. Notable versions include:

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• Les Liaisons dangereuses, 1959 film directed by Roger Vadim and set in the modern era, with Jeanne Moreau as Juliette de Meurteuil and Gérard Philipe as Valmont
• Dangerous Liaisons, 1988 film directed by Stephen Frears, starring John Malkovich as Valmont, Glenn Close as Madame de Merteuil, and Michelle Pfeiffer and Uma Thurman as Valmont’s conquests
• Valmont, 1989 film directed by Miloš Forman, starring Colin Firth in the title role and Annette Bening as Madame de Merteuil
• Cruel Intentions, 1999 film directed by Roger Kumble and set in a modern American prep school, featuring Sarah Michelle Gellar as Kathryn Merteuil, Ryan Phillippe as Sebastian Valmont, and Reese Witherspoon as one of their victims
• Merteuil, 2025 “prequel” television series, also titled The Seduction, directed by Jean-Baptiste Delafon and starring Anamaria Vartolomei as the title character, Vincent Lacoste as Valmont, and Diane Kruger as Valmont’s aunt Rosemonde