Les liaisons scandaleuses

When it was published in 1782, the novel "Les Liaisons dangereuses" scandalized and unleashed passions. It was read under the cloak and in the alcoves to better offend its scent of sulfur and its sexual allusions. Composed of 175 letters from a Machiavellian duo of aristocrats - partners then enemies -, the novel, a brilliant treatise on libertinism, intertwines love, revenge and scheming in a refined language. Judged immoral, the book is especially condemned as a corrupter of souls, especially that of young girls. Even more than the Viscount de Valmont, a debauched seducer, the diabolical Marquise de Merteuil stuns and disturbs. A manipulator with a formidable intelligence, this widow and wounded lover, who aspires to the power of men, fights to conquer it in a merciless war of the sexes.