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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Rape, Gaslighting
challenging
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Cool concept
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I want to share with you my 3 (Three) favorite books. So far there have been three books that have impressed my keen delight for melodrama, since it's really melodrama I love reading about most. Les Liaisons Dangereuses is my third favorite book; and I've probably read it at least 5 times, without finishing; yet again, my affection was seized so strongly I could not continue; every February I have attempted to read it, then ceased before I could allow myself disappointment ... So I picked up the rest of it tonight, and I will likely read it one more time. I've had my mind on erotic fiction ... So, my 1st (First) ever favorite was none other than Dracula. This one and that one are both entirely composed by the letters of fictional events, fictional characters. I have a thing for letters, there is a side to me that wishes to be immersed and dearly fond of personal letters .. Dracula was among the first few I picked out, and in it's place was a thirst I have quenched thrice; & needs must quench again, although next time I will read Bram Stoker's complete novels, incl. Lair of the White Worm, which I half expect to love as much as Dracula. The 2nd (Second) book was Richard Russo's Bridge of Sighs, which I never want to ever read again. So until I have found a fourth and a fifth, Choderlos de Laclos has been read, shelved, and re-read over .. my admission that I adore this novel.
"I will say with Socrates: "I like my friends to come to me when they are unhappy"; but as he was a philosopher, he could get on without them when they did not come. In that respect, I am not quite so wise as he, and I felt your silence with all a woman's weakness."
^ above is a section of a letter written by The Marquise de Merteuil to her lover, Chancellor Danceny. The Marquise is everyone's confidante and the fulcrum by all events unfolding, in a word, matchmaker. Actually Danceny loves Cécile Volanges, and the Marquise finds her beneath him, either/or, and the despicable Vicomte de Valmont, is trying to seduce and ruin a widow, until she reciprocates, falls deathly ill in a convent. The Vicomte spurns them all, manipulated and wronged them all, egged on by the meddling Marquise. 🥚
"I will say with Socrates: "I like my friends to come to me when they are unhappy"; but as he was a philosopher, he could get on without them when they did not come. In that respect, I am not quite so wise as he, and I felt your silence with all a woman's weakness."
^ above is a section of a letter written by The Marquise de Merteuil to her lover, Chancellor Danceny. The Marquise is everyone's confidante and the fulcrum by all events unfolding, in a word, matchmaker. Actually Danceny loves Cécile Volanges, and the Marquise finds her beneath him, either/or, and the despicable Vicomte de Valmont, is trying to seduce and ruin a widow, until she reciprocates, falls deathly ill in a convent. The Vicomte spurns them all, manipulated and wronged them all, egged on by the meddling Marquise. 🥚
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I absolutely, thoroughly enjoyed this book. Many epistolary novels are not very well-done; you can see the author's discomfort with the medium, the stiltedness. This one got the medium perfectly. The characters are so well drawn; their interactions are so beautifully authentic, so perfectly cohesive. There's cunning and charm and competing ideologies and oh my lord this was a wonderful book. So much food for thought.
The only reason it doesn't get five stars is the ending. I found the ending far too predictable and far too much of a let-down---but then, it probably never would have gotten published if it hadn't ended that way.
The only reason it doesn't get five stars is the ending. I found the ending far too predictable and far too much of a let-down---but then, it probably never would have gotten published if it hadn't ended that way.
I've used a long time to actually read this because I've spent my time elsewhere, but this is a really fun and interesting classic. Easy to read, easy to follow, and the character relations are all fun and interesting, some more than others. It's highly dramatic in the best of ways.
Opon re-reading: now 4.25 stars and not 4. I read it in 3 days this time (I had no choice) and enjoyed it immensely. There's so many things to pick up here and it's definitely another classic that gets better with reading it again, knowing the ending and other stuff makes me enjoy the first parts more.
Opon re-reading: now 4.25 stars and not 4. I read it in 3 days this time (I had no choice) and enjoyed it immensely. There's so many things to pick up here and it's definitely another classic that gets better with reading it again, knowing the ending and other stuff makes me enjoy the first parts more.
“ha conocido muy pronto que para dominar en la sociedad basta saber manejar con igual destreza el elogio y la sátira.”
El éxito fue inmediato de este texto, del cual Laclos no lo esperaba, fue su única gran novela, publicada en 1782 antes de ascender a general de artillería. Un texto epistolar inmediatamente marcado por la condena moral, dejó de ser republicado durante parte del siglo XIX.
El inviolable pacto de relación entre dos aristocráticos, la marquesa Merteuil y el Vizconde de Valmont, es el que se da para que el Valmont alcance los propósitos amatorios a través de la seducción de la joven Cecilia de Volanges que se casará con el conde de Gercourt, pero Valmont lleva sus brazos mas allá comprometiéndose a seducir a la virtuosa Madame de Tourvel.
La joven Cecilia Volanges abandona su convento para conocer el mundo y casarse con el Conde de Gercourt, pero uno de sus parientes, la Marquesa de Merteuil, pretende aprovechar este proyecto matrimonial para vengarse de una infidelidad que Gercourt le dio en su día. Por lo tanto, instruyó a su cómplice, el vizconde de Valmont, a pervertir a Cecilia antes de su boda. Pero lejos de París, en el castillo de su vieja tía, Valmont, por su parte, se propuso seducir al devoto presidente de Tourvel, y pronto se desarrolló un idilio entre la "pequeña Volanges" y el joven Danceny.
Mas allá de las complicaciones que trae un texto, donde su estructura esta bajo los parámetros de cartas, donde se puede hacer algo tedioso, pero dicha empresa llevada a cabo por Laclos la hace una obra magistral donde el amor, la manipulación, el deseo y la sexualidad se hace relevante en una sociedad variopinta. Bien dibuja una sátira mordaz sobre la atracción, el amor y las mentiras. Estos dos personajes: Merteuil y Valmont llevan todo el peso del texto, te muestra lo negro del corazón del hombre, de las estrategias mal sanas para lograr los objetivos que se propone. Es difícil olvida aquella la carta LXXXI, la cual habla sobre sus estrategias de seducción, de cómo fue aprendiendo las debilidades de los seres humanos. Pero tampoco olvidar cuando Valmont le dice a Merteuil: Nada complace más a una mujer que vencer a otra mujer.
Si de paso después de leer el libro, quedaron con un deseo de saber mas, hay una buena adaptación de 1988 con el reparto de Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Uma Trhuman, Keanu Reeve entre otros. Exquisitos los papeles de Glenn y Malkovich.
El éxito fue inmediato de este texto, del cual Laclos no lo esperaba, fue su única gran novela, publicada en 1782 antes de ascender a general de artillería. Un texto epistolar inmediatamente marcado por la condena moral, dejó de ser republicado durante parte del siglo XIX.
El inviolable pacto de relación entre dos aristocráticos, la marquesa Merteuil y el Vizconde de Valmont, es el que se da para que el Valmont alcance los propósitos amatorios a través de la seducción de la joven Cecilia de Volanges que se casará con el conde de Gercourt, pero Valmont lleva sus brazos mas allá comprometiéndose a seducir a la virtuosa Madame de Tourvel.
La joven Cecilia Volanges abandona su convento para conocer el mundo y casarse con el Conde de Gercourt, pero uno de sus parientes, la Marquesa de Merteuil, pretende aprovechar este proyecto matrimonial para vengarse de una infidelidad que Gercourt le dio en su día. Por lo tanto, instruyó a su cómplice, el vizconde de Valmont, a pervertir a Cecilia antes de su boda. Pero lejos de París, en el castillo de su vieja tía, Valmont, por su parte, se propuso seducir al devoto presidente de Tourvel, y pronto se desarrolló un idilio entre la "pequeña Volanges" y el joven Danceny.
Mas allá de las complicaciones que trae un texto, donde su estructura esta bajo los parámetros de cartas, donde se puede hacer algo tedioso, pero dicha empresa llevada a cabo por Laclos la hace una obra magistral donde el amor, la manipulación, el deseo y la sexualidad se hace relevante en una sociedad variopinta. Bien dibuja una sátira mordaz sobre la atracción, el amor y las mentiras. Estos dos personajes: Merteuil y Valmont llevan todo el peso del texto, te muestra lo negro del corazón del hombre, de las estrategias mal sanas para lograr los objetivos que se propone. Es difícil olvida aquella la carta LXXXI, la cual habla sobre sus estrategias de seducción, de cómo fue aprendiendo las debilidades de los seres humanos. Pero tampoco olvidar cuando Valmont le dice a Merteuil: Nada complace más a una mujer que vencer a otra mujer.
Si de paso después de leer el libro, quedaron con un deseo de saber mas, hay una buena adaptación de 1988 con el reparto de Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Uma Trhuman, Keanu Reeve entre otros. Exquisitos los papeles de Glenn y Malkovich.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Everyone should read this. This is brilliant. The full-on gasps I emitted during this book...what a TIME. It definitely is slower to read through because of the era, but the plot and characters are 200% worth it.
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault