Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

Thanks to Délaissé's French February event, I've finally read a book I've been interested in for a long time. It looked like a chunkster in the beginning (653 pages of 18th century writing, and this is even without extensive commentary!), but you wouldn't believe what an easy and fast read it is! The trick is that the book is a collection of letters, so although the style is not really very different from letter to letter, the writing is very dynamic, and the POV changing allows the reader to see the events from different aspects.

The book is about two cunning intrigants, Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont who play the game of seduction for fun of sometimes for revenge. Their correspondence is very witty and full of sarcasm, and their plots are quite complicated and full of the most sober view of human nature in its worst aspects. Everything goes well for them while they are allies, but as soon as they have a serious argument, and their forces turn against each other, they both step on the road of complete ruin.

As you can guess, the book is full of spicy episodes, but there's nothing really offensive there. What may be shocking is the attitude of the two main characters towards their prey - they never give a damn about what happen to people after their plot is at an end. All they care about is themselves, and as this book is positioned as a moralistic one, they get punished for this in the end.

I really enjoyed the book, as I've always liked intrigues. And here not only the plot is entertaining, but also the setting (Paris's high society of the 18th century - who doesn't like it?) and the characters, who are very diverse and real. Needless to say, my favourite was Valmont's aunt, who is a really nice old lady, very kind and tolerant. Cute little Cecile is also so charmingly naive, that you can't stop admiring how nicely she was brought to life by Laclos. But sometimes she is just unbelievably stupid: how can a girl NOT understand that she is pregnant even when she already loses a baby? Unbelieveble.

So it was a really nice choice for a February readalong, as it's a very dynamic and entertaining book. Now I'm waiting to read what others think about it in the end of February!