I resolved to write a book which would create some stir in the world and continue to do after I had gone from it. Choderlos de Laclos

A great sensation at the time of first publication, Les Liaisons Dangereuses reads as much the most 'modern' of eighteenth-century novels. Viewed by some critics as a morality tale and others as a subtle inquiry into libertinism, it brilliantly depicts the foibles of the French aristocracy on the eve of the French Revolution. Renowned for its exploration of lust, revenge and human malice, and still carrying a tremendous power to shock, its adaptations for screen and stage have made its central characters notorious for their sophisticated and ultimately tragic games of seduction and manipulation.