Pierre-Ambroise-François Choderlos de Laclos

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Choderlos de Laclos, pastel picture by Alexander Kucharski (1741–1819)

Pierre-Ambroise-François Choderlos de Laclos (born October 18, 1741 in Amiens , † September 5, 1803 in Taranto ) was a French officer and writer .

Laclos, as it is called simply in the history of literature, owes its fame to a single book, the epistolary novel Hazardous Liaisons (original title: Les Liaisons dangereuses ) from 1782, which is considered one of the best French novels of the 18th century.

life and work

origin

Laclos came from a family that had been raised to the nobility shortly before his birth and had added a noble "de Laclos" to their real name Choderlos. Almost nothing is known about his youth.

At the military

In 1759, in the middle of the Seven Years' War , he joined the army and began training as an officer in the artillery , where, as a new nobleman, he saw the best career opportunities for himself. Because of the end of the war in 1763, he was no longer able to work at the front, but instead began a rather monotonous and sluggishly upward career in frequently changing garrisons ( Toul , Strasbourg , Grenoble , Besançon ). After all, he was allowed to set up an artillery school in Valence in 1777 . In 1779, in a situation of renewed political tension between France and England, he was posted to the fortress island of Aix in front of the naval port of Rochefort to oversee the repair of the ailing fortifications. He found this post a dead end and felt himself disadvantaged by the royal decree of 1774, which closed the top officer ranks to all persons who were not at least the fourth generation of the nobility.

The dangerous love affairs

After he had only diletted literarily with anacreontic poems, some erotic stories and an opera libretto, Laclos now processed his resentment on Aix and during two long Paris vacations (1780 and 1781) by writing the epistolary novel Les Liaisons dangereuses (literally: dangerous Relationships). In this novel, actually intended as an attack against the high and court nobility, two characters presented as prototypes of aristocratic libertinage , namely an old noble viscount and an old noble marquise, two new aristocratic women who regard love not as a mere game but as seriousness, are deceived and disappointed in death or in the monastery. However, since Laclos unnoticed also identifies himself with his villains, who are conceived as highly intelligent and sovereign, and portrays them as unwillingly loving and thus ultimately deceived and disappointed themselves, his novel becomes a masterpiece of psychological analysis that can still be fascinating today. In the foreword, the author formulates the unequivocally moral intention that he wants to warn his readers and especially young readers of the uncontrollable consequences of the hedonistic- lax aristocratic love and sexual morality, libertinage, and he also dutifully punishes the two bad guys at the end Until well into the 19th century , the liaisons were mostly read and misunderstood as an immoral, even pornographic text and accordingly repeatedly banned.

Incidentally, the common German title dangerous love affairs is not entirely correct, because the novel is about the danger not only of love affairs, but also of carelessly entered into social relationships.

The first edition of the Liaisons appeared on March 23, 1782. Within just one month, the entire print run of 2,000 copies had been sold and reprints were necessary. Since then, the novel has been available in bookstores at any time (if often only in secret) and is now available in both illustrated collector's editions and as a paperback.

End of military career

Laclos himself was reassigned to a less attractive post in La Rochelle (1783) after the successful, albeit scandalous, publication of the book . Here he impregnated the daughter of a senior official in 1784 and began a rather skeptical treatise on ways to improve women's education. But he didn't finish it after he became a father and then got married.

In 1786 he caused offense once more with an open letter to the Académie française , in which he pointed out that the conception of the highly acclaimed fortifications of the great fortress builder Vauban (1633-1707) was now outdated. In 1788 Laclos took his leave as an officer.

Revolution and end

After leaving the army, he became secretary to Duke Louis-Philippe-Joseph d'Orléans, "Philippe Egalité", the father of the later "citizen king" Louis-Philippe . In his service or in connection with his own political ambitions during the revolution, Laclos wrote various political writings between 1789 and 1791. In 1792 he first served the revolutionary regime as a liaison officer and was then promoted to general. In 1793, the year of the reign of terror, he too was arrested and in danger of being beheaded. In 1794, the fall of the dictator Robespierre saved and freed him . In 1799 Laclos joined the new strong man Napoleon and became general again, taking part in military operations for the first time in 1800 with the Rhine Army.

He died at the age of 61 on September 5, 1803 in Taranto at the headquarters of the French Army in Southern Italy of an intestinal infection. His grave was apparently destroyed after the end of Napoleonic rule.

Another novel by Laclos did not get beyond sketches and plans.

Works

  • Les liaisons dangereuses . 1782
First edition by Durand Neveu in Paris on March 23, 1782.
  • Ernestine (libretto, 1777), music by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges
  • De l'éducation des femmes (1784/85)
  • Instructions aux assemblées de baillage (1789)
  • Journal des amis de la Constitution (1790–1791)
  • De la guerre et de la paix (1795)

German editions

  • Dangerous romances. Übers., Einl. August Brücher. Drawings Erich M. Simon. In 4 parts. Borngräber, Leipzig 1914
  • Dangerous liaisons . Translated from Heinrich Mann . 1920 etc.
Bad love affairs . With 14 copperplate engravings. Transfer u. a. by Heinrich Mann. Insel, Frankfurt 1972
  • Dangerous liaisons . Translated from Franz Blei . 2 vols. Hyperion, Munich [around 1925]
Afterword by Renate Briesemeister. Diogenes, Zurich 1989
  • Dangerous liaisons . Transl., Edit. Erich von Holst. Schreiter, Berlin [1926]
  • Dangerous liaisons . Translated from Walter Widmer . Goldmann, Munich 1959
  • Dangerous liaisons . Translated by Hans Kauders. Munich 1959 and others
  • Dangerous liaisons . Translated by Wolfgang Tschöke, Nachw. Elke Schmitter . Hanser, Munich 2003

Illustrations

  • Götz von Seckendorff: Hand-colored lithographs for Choderlos de Laclos Liaisons dangereuses . Hanover: Banas & Dette 1920. 10 plates in folder.

Film adaptations (selection)

literature

  • Kirsten von Hagen: Intermedial love affairs. Multiple adaptations of Choderlos de Laclos' letter novel "Les liaisons dangereuses" . Stauffenburg, Tübingen 2002 ISBN 3-86057-535-X
  • Gert Pinkernell : On the function and meaning of the triangular configuration in Laclos' "Les Liaisons dangereuses", in: Interpretations . Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 1997, pp. 111-124
  • Barbara Vinken: Inescapable curiosity. The worldly dilapidation of the novel. Samuel Richardson's "Clarissa", Laclos' "Liaisons dangereuses" . Rombach, Freiburg 1991 ISBN 3-7930-9065-5

Web links

Commons : Pierre Choderlos de Laclos  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Auteur: Pierre Choderlos de Laclos  - Sources and full texts (French)
personal data
SURNAME Choderlos de Laclos, Pierre-Ambroise-François
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French writer and officer
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1741
PLACE OF BIRTH Amiens
DATE OF DEATH September 5, 1803
Place of death Tarent