Dangerous romances

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Illustration in a 1796 edition

Dangerous Liaisons ( French : Les Liaisons dangereuses ), a letter novel by Pierre-Ambroise-François Choderlos de Laclos , is considered a major work in French literature of the 18th century and a moral painting of the late Ancien Régime . The novel was published in France for the first time in 1782, was a scandalous success with contemporary audiences and had several editions up to the French Revolution . It was translated into German as early as 1783. One of the most famous translators is Heinrich Mann , who translated it from French in 1905.

The novel tells the story of two intrigues in 175 letters: the planned seduction of Cécile de Volanges, a naive young girl who has just left her convent school, and that of Madame de Tourvel, a virtuous married woman. The operators of the two intrigues are the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, who do not feel bound by moral and traditional sexual norms and lead a dissolute lifestyle. For the Marquise de Merteuil, the seduction of Cécile de Volanges is revenge on her former lover, who left her for another woman and who wants to marry Cécile de Volanges, a girl who is still virgin and malleable. For the Vicomte de Valmont, the conquest of the prudish and loyal Madame de Tourvel will underscore his reputation as an irresistible seducer. Both schemers get caught up in the pitfalls of their own intrigue: The Marquise de Merteuil refuses the Viscount de Valmont the reward promised for the successful seduction of Madame de Tourvel when she realizes that he has true feelings for the virtuous. The open declaration of war between the two ultimately leads to a duel between the Vicomte de Valmont and the Chevalier Danceny, who loved Cécile de Volanges, deflowered by Valmont. In the last minutes of his life, Valmont, who was defeated in the duel, hands over the letters from the Marquise de Merteuil to the Chevalier, revealing her intriguing game. The novel ends with the punishment of all the main characters in the plot. The naive returns to the monastery, the seduced virtuous dies in mental derangement, the seducer is killed in a duel and the marquise, who was involved in both intrigues, loses her fortune and her beauty.

The novel, which today is counted among the classics of world literature, has been adapted several times for the stage and for film. Among the adaptations are Heiner Müller's play Quartet , Christopher Hampton's play Dangerous Liaisons , the eponymous film by Stephen Frears , based on this play, and the movie Valmont by Milos Forman .

The letter novel

Preface and preliminary remark

Laclos prefaces his novel with two forewords. The first is a (purported) preliminary remark from the editor, indicating that the whole thing is just a novel. This introduction continues:

“Some of the characters are indeed so immoral and depraved that they could not possibly have lived in our century, in this century of philosophy and enlightenment of ours, which all men are known to be so honorable and all women so humble and decent have made."

This is followed by an (alleged) foreword by the collector of the letters:

“This work, or rather this compilation, which the reader may find too extensive, contains only the smaller number of letters that make up the entire correspondence. As a reward for my efforts, I only asked the people to whom these letters were addressed to be given permission to leave out everything that seemed unimportant to me, and I tried to give only those letters that seem important to me to understand the plot or the characters. "

The letters

The plot of the novel is revealed to the reader exclusively through letters. The reader thus participates directly in what is being described - there is no omniscient narrator who has an overview of the plot and the people involved, but the multitude of letter writers opens up several perspectives on the same event for the reader. This also gives the novel a certain form of irony based on the different knowledge of the characters in the novel. Kirsten von Hagen points out that Laclos works with a "suspense" effect, as we know it from thrillers and crime stories of the 20th century. The reader knows more than the individual characters and thereby anticipates certain events. So the reader knows the pact between the Viscount de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil and Valmont's plan to seduce the virtuous Madame de Tourvel and reads the letters with a certain expectation.

Valmont's staged charity campaign, in which he saves a family threatened by financial ruin by paying their debts because he knows that a servant of Madame de Tourvel is watching him, is first described in the viscount's letter (letter 21), then in Letter 22 in the enthusiastic description of Madame de Tourvel, who does not see through his maneuvers, and finally in letter 23 a third time through Valmont, in which he enthusiastically describes to his letter recipient Merteuil the eulogies with which Madame de Tourvel praised his aunt and the pastor who was present praises. But Laclos sometimes deliberately leaves the reader in the dark. Why Madame de Volanges suddenly so determinedly asks for the key to her daughter's desk in order to find the letters of the Chevalier Darceny there is only explained to the reader two letters later - in Letter 64 the Marquise de Merteuil proudly reports about her to the Viscount de Valmont Intrigue that she describes as her masterpiece. She has crept into Cécile de Volanges' trust and therefore knows where she keeps the letters she receives from Chevalier Danceny, and at the same time generates herself towards Madame de Volanges as a virtuous person who is alarmed by Cécile's behavior. In order to be able to continue her double game, she advises her mother not to betray her.

“I also asked her not to reveal me to her daughter, which she promised me all the more easily when I pointed out to her that it would only be all the better if the child trusted me to give me her heart and make it possible for me to give her my good advice. That she will keep her promise to me is certain, because she will want to stage something with her daughter with her sharp eye. And I can mark the girl's friend without her mother believing me wrong and dishonest. And I also benefit from the fact that I can be with the little one as often and as long as it suits me without the mother noticing it suspiciously. "

The letters regularly contain references to both the act of writing the letter and the form in which the letter is transmitted. The best-known letter scene is probably Letter 48, in which the Viscount de Valmont tells the Marquise de Merteuil that he has just written a love letter to Madame de Tourvel, but that he has used the courtesan Émilie’s back as a writing pad, with whom he shares the bed .

However, the letters rarely actually convey what really moves the person. Cécile de Volanges, who has just been released from the monastery, initially tries to express her true feelings in her letters. However, the Marquise de Merteuil soon pointed out that the main aim of letters was to write to the recipient what he would like. The high point of the art of pretending are the letters from the Viscount de Valmont to Madame de Tourvel, in which Valmont unscrupulously uses a religiously colored language. Madame de Tourvel's mistake lies in accepting these letters, which ultimately become her undoing because she succumbs to her seductive power. Valmont must go to great lengths at the beginning to get them to do so. He uses a false postmark to fake her that the present letter comes from her husband who is in Dijon, or he puts a letter on her bed in the presence of his aunt, which she has to accept if she does not want to provoke a scandal.

Laclos also plays with the amount of time that elapses between sending and receiving a letter. The 75th letter that the Marquise of Merteuil addressed to the Viscount of Valmont and the 72nd letter that Cécile Volanges wrote to her pen pal and school friend Sophie Carnay, commented on events that had already completely resolved themselves by the time the letter arrived has resulted in a new constellation.

Places of action

Unusually for novels of his time, the novel often only gives vague information about the location. The country seat of Madame de Rosemonde is not located any closer. Otherwise, the action takes place in Paris, but again there are few precise local references. It mentions the church of Saint-Roch, where Valmont and the marquise Madame de Tourvel watch, the street in front of the opera and finally the Comédie of Italy, where the marquise is booed. The fact that places are so rarely precisely identified in the novel may have something to do with the absence of an omniscient narrator. There is no need for the letter writers to specify the places where they are staying.

The letter writers

Laclos initially uses relatively fixed types, such as those found in the Commedia dell'arte : the virtuous innocence, the young naive, the cold-blooded seducer, the wise counselor and the chivalrous romantic. Laclos, however, breaks through the traditional role structure: the cold-blooded seducer sometimes also develops real feelings and the virtuous innocence sometimes also develops passionate feelings.

There are seven main correspondents in the novel. They are juxtaposed with seven other characters who, like Céciles monastery friend, do not write at all or like the secondary characters Maréchale (letter 86), Valmont's servant Azolan (letter 107), Marquise Merteuil's former lover and Cecile's intended husband Gercourt (letter 111), Père Anselme (letter 123), Betrand (letter 163 and letter 166) and a friend of Chevalier Danceny who remained anonymous (letter 167) are only represented by one or two letters.

Marquise de Merteuil

Illustration from Letter 44: Je ne lui permis de changer ni de situation ni de parure (Charles Monnet, 1796)

The marquise is of noble descent and was married to the Marquis de Merteuil at a young age, who however died soon afterwards. Although she could have married, she did not do so in order not to be dependent on anyone. In order not to damage her reputation, she retired to one of his castles after the death of the Marquis and studied the behavior of the Society of the Ancien Régime in philosophical writings - probably by Rousseau and Voltaire , which she quotes several times in their letters. After her re-entry into society, she began to take lovers and enjoyed a happy life without, however, destroying her reputation as an honorable woman.

At the beginning of the Dangerous Liaisons, the Marquise asks her former lover, Viscount de Valmont, to do her friendship: he should seduce and deflower the young Cécile de Volanges, to whom the Marquise is even related, because she is engaged to the Comte de Gercourt who left the marquise. After some entanglement, the former friends and allies - the Viscount and the Marquise - become estranged and try to harm each other. After Valmont has unleashed the Marquise's young lover, Ritter Danceny, who also has a relationship with Cécile de Volanges, the Marquise de Merteuil turns him against Valmont. Danzeny finally kills Valmont in a duel at Merteuil's instigation, but the Viscount tells Danceny the truth before his death and gives him the letters he wrote with Merteuil. Danzeny finally publishes this and thus destroys the reputation of the marquise. This then loses a court case, is bankrupt and shunned by the entire Parisian society. The Marquise de Merteuil fell ill with smallpox, but survived with terrible scars on her face. Shortly afterwards, she leaves Paris and takes her leftover jewelry with her. Her relatives believe she went to the Netherlands.

The Marquise de Merteuil is the absolute villain in the novel, because unlike the Viscount, she does not regret it. Her figure should surely give a moral picture of her class and her punishment anticipated the judgments of the ancien régime in the French Revolution. On the other hand, Laclos also gives her a justification: In a letter to Valmont, she describes her “career” and reveals the constraints that forced her to take on her role: while every conquest is a victory for a man, it is a defeat for a woman . So what can a woman do but hide behind a mask to enjoy her life?

Viscount de Valmont

The viscount is of high aristocratic origin, has social prestige, wealth, charm and charisma. He competes with other libertines in the field of seduction - if he succeeds in seducing the as principled and loyal wife of the Présidente de Tourvel, this will bring him great fame in these circles. He is rumored to have had relationships with all the women of Paris, which does not necessarily make him the darling of most husbands and mothers. The Marquise de Merteuil sees the reason for his irresistibility in "his beautiful face, his good manners, his mind and his insolence". The marquise herself had a relationship with the viscount and now asks him to seduce the young Cécile de Volanges in revenge. He refuses, however, as he already has the plan to seduce the virtuous and religious president of Tourvel. While Madame de Tourvel is still reluctant to play the seduction game of the Viscount, the Viscount de Valmont takes revenge on Madame de Volanges, who Madame de Tourvel warned about him and thereby endangers his success. He seduces her young daughter Cécile.

Finally he can defeat Madame de Tourvel and she starts a relationship with him. However, when the Marquise de Merteuil reproaches him for being in love with and dependent on her, he separates from her. Madame de Tourvel, who has betrayed all her ideals on his account, then collapses. Valmont now wants to keep the promise of the marquise and sleep with her. But Merteuil doesn't stick to it because she thinks he's no longer the same because of his love for Tourvel. So Valmont fights the Marquise, but she triumphs by having her young lover Danceny duel with Valmont. Danzeny kills Valmont, but Valmont can tell him the truth before his end and hand him the letters of the Viscount and the Marquise, in which their story is written down. So the Viscount wins in the end, because with the publication of the letters by Danceny, the Marquise de Merteuil loses all the things that are important to her: her reputation, her wealth and her beauty.

In the history of literature, the role model for the figure of Viscount de Valmont Roué Lovelace is seen. This figure, designed by Samuel Richardson, is also aiming for a virtuous figure with Clarissa. Lovelace, however, is willing to use force to make his victim submissive if necessary, while Valmont, as a subtle libertine, uses more subtle means. If the novel is received as a moral historical document, the Viscount de Valmont can be seen as a typical representative of court society. The court marked under Louis XV. and his weak successor Louis XVI. Carefree and openness in erotic things. In this context Valmont is a person committed to sexual libertinage, whose only true love is for his own self and to which he subordinates everything else. In love affairs, the quick seduction and the immediate break with the victim is the typical approach of libertine, who thereby proves his own power.

Cecile de Volanges

Cécile is a student of the convent and is supposed to marry the former lover of the Marquise, Count Gercourt. He left the marquise for another woman - and that is the reason why she asks Valmont to seduce the 15-year-old. In Letter 2 the marquise calls her a rosebud, stupid and ridiculously naive, but not graceful. The marquise is also convinced that Cécile will later also be among the libertines. However, the marquise is mistaken - later the marquise will admit to herself that her pupil does not have what it takes to be an "éducation libertine".

The 15-year-old falls in love with her music teacher, the Chevalier Danceny. That does not prevent her from taking pleasure in Valmont's nightly visits to Madame de Rosemonde's castle. Laclos criticized the inadequate education of women in detail in a later publication “De l'éducation des femmes”. Cécile de Volanges is an illustration of what an inadequate education can do to a young woman.

Madame de Volanges

She is Cecile's mother and friend of Madame Rosemonde, Aunt Valmonts, and the President de Tourvel, and a relative of the Marquise de Merteuil.

Chevalier Danzeny

Danzeny gives Cécile music lessons and has fallen in love with the young woman.

Madame de Tourvel

Illustration from 1796 to Letter 143

Madame de Tourvel is married to the President de Tourvel. Although she does not love him, she respects him and is connected to him through close friendship. Although she is extraordinarily beautiful and her husband is not often at home, she is loyal to him. At the beginning of the dangerous love affairs, Madame de Tourvel pays a visit to her friend's castle, Madame de Rosemonde, because her husband is not at home. There, Madame Rosemonde's nephew, the Viscount de Valmont, who also lives in his aunt's castle, becomes aware of her. Valmont describes them in letter 6 addressed to the Marquise de Mertieul in almost sensual terms:

“You accuse her of dressing badly, and rightly so, because she doesn't like splendor; everything that veils it defaces it. Only in the freedom of the housedress is it really delightful. Thanks to the humid heat that now prevails, a simple linen negligee reveals the round and soft lines of her body. A thin muslin covers the neck, and my secret but penetrating glances saw the most delightful shapes. They say their face has no expression. What is it supposed to express in moments when nothing speaks to your heart? No, without a doubt she doesn't have that lying look of our flirtatious women that sometimes seduces us but always cheats us. She doesn't know how to hide the emptiness of a phrase with a practiced smile, and no matter how much she has the most beautiful teeth in the world, she only laughs when she finds something to laugh about. "

He tries to befriend de Tourvel, but she doesn't want to know anything about him, because her friend, Madame de Volanges, has warned her in a letter about his favorite activity of seducing and then destroying women. However, Valmont captivates Tourvel with his charm and does all kinds of things to impress her, which eventually convinces her that her friend's advice is not important. She befriends him, but he reveals his "love" to Mme. De Tourvel, which makes her completely disturbed and angry. She asks him to leave the castle, which he does. However, Valmont continues to send her letters with his declarations of love, which she first returns unopened, but then accepts. First she offers him her friendship, but he replies that he just wants to be her lover and nothing else. Eventually she admits that she has feelings for him but still insists on not breaking her loyalty to her husband. But after four months Valmont conquers Mme. De Tourvel and they start a relationship. What the womanizer Valmont does not want to admit, however, is that he is in love with the President of Tourvel and has thus betrayed himself. The Marquise de Merteuil, who finally revealed this to him, put him to shame, and so he wrote a letter to the President, in which he announced that he would no longer have anything to do with her. She had a nervous breakdown and moved to the monastery. When she accidentally learns that Valmont has been killed in a duel, she forgives him and dies.

President de Tourvel is probably the most positively drawn person in the novel. She is loyal, honest, uncomplicated and innocent, maybe a little naive. Her seduction, illness and death, all of which Valmont was to blame, shock the reader and therefore show the malice of the Viscount and the Marquise. Individual literary historians have argued that Madame de Tourvel unites ideals of the bourgeoisie, while Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil represent the nobility and their libertine attitudes.

Madame de Rosemonde

She is the aunt of the Viscount de Valmont and friend of Madame de Tourvel.

Reviews

  • Hermann Hesse said of the novel: Among the erotic and socially critical novels of the French 18th century, perhaps the smartest, coolest, most unsentimental. Literally and psychologically brilliant.
  • At the request of the publisher France Loisirs, the members of the Académie Goncourt (see Prix ​​Goncourt ) in 1999 selected the twelve books that “assert themselves as essential works of French literature”. The novel Les Liaisons dangereuses took first place.

Expenses (selection)

Valmont , frontispiece by Aubrey Beardsley (1896)

The book has been translated into German several times. The first German translation of the four-volume novel from 1782 appeared in 1783 under the title

  • The dangerous acquaintances - or letters gathered in one society and made known for the instruction of some others .
  • Dangerous friendships . 2 vols. Leipzig by Rothbart and in Berlin by Hegner 1905.
Heinrich Mann translated the novel from the French under this title in 1905 and provided it with an essayistic introduction.
From 1920 his translation appeared under the title Schlimme Liebschaften in Insel-Verlag, Leipzig.
Bad love affairs. Island paperback. Frankfurt a. M. Insel-Verl. 1972.
  • Dangerous liaisons . Translation by Franz Blei . Munich: Hyperion 1909.
  • Dangerous liaisons . Translation by Hans Kauders. Munich: Winkler-Verlag 1959.
  • The dangerous acquaintances or letters collected in one society and published for the instruction of some others . Translated by Christian von Bonin. Edited by Rudolf Fleck and Eberhard Wesemann. Munich: Beck 1988. ISBN 3-406-31759-6
  • Dangerous liaisons . New translation by Wolfgang Tschöke. Munich: Hanser Verlag 2003.
as paperback: Munich: dtv, Munich 2007. ISBN 978-3-423-13560-3

Adaptations

Movie

The material served as the basis for nine films:

theatre

Opera and musical

The German band Liaisons Dangereuses was named after the novel .

See also

literature

  • Anne Brüske: The Female Subject in Crisis: Anthropological Semantics in Laclos' Liaisons dangereuses. Winter, Heidelberg 2010 (Studia Romanica 159)
  • Kirsten von Hagen: Intermedial Liaisons: Multiple adaptations of Choderlos de Laclos "Les Liaisons dangereuses". Stauffenburg Verlag, Tübingen 2000, ISBN 3-86057-535-X
  • H. Knufmann: Evil in the liaisons dangereuses des Choderlos de Laclos . Munich 1965
  • Gert Pinkernell : On the function and meaning of the triangular constellation in the "Liaisons dangereuses" by Choderlos de Laclos . In: GP: interpretations . University Press Winter, Heidelberg 1997
  • Anke Wortmann: Choderlos de Laclos: Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782). In: Dietmar Rieger (ed.): French literature. 18th century I: novel. Stauffenburg, Tübingen 2000, pp. 253-302
  • Joelle Jean: Les Liaisons dangereuses de Laclos. Series of Balises oeuvres. Fernand Nathan, Paris 1993 ISBN 2877141535
  • Götz von Seckendorff : Hand-colored lithographs for Choderlos de Laclos Liaisons dangereuses . 10 plates in a folder, 120 numbered copies. Banas & Dette Verlag, Hanover 1920

Web links

Commons : Les Liaisons Dangereuses  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Dangerous Passions . Editor's note, translated by Franz Blei
  2. Dangerous Passions . Foreword by the collector of letters, translated by Franz Blei
  3. Kirsten von Hagen: Intermediale Liebschaften: Multiple adaptations of Choderlos de Laclos "Les Liaisons dangereuses". Stauffenburg Verlag, Tübingen 2000, p. 45
  4. ^ Laclos: Dangerous Passions , excerpt from Letter 64, translated by Franz Blei.
  5. Kirsten von Hagen: Intermediale Liebschaften: Multiple adaptations of Choderlos de Laclos "Les Liaisons dangereuses". Stauffenburg Verlag, Tübingen 2000, p. 29.
  6. Kirsten von Hagen: Intermediale Liebschaften: Multiple adaptations of Choderlos de Laclos "Les Liaisons dangereuses". Stauffenburg Verlag, Tübingen 2000, p. 49.
  7. Kirsten von Hagen: Intermediale Liebschaften: Multiple adaptations of Choderlos de Laclos "Les Liaisons dangereuses". Stauffenburg Verlag, Tübingen 2000, p. 53.
  8. Kirsten von Hagen: Intermediale Liebschaften: Multiple adaptations of Choderlos de Laclos "Les Liaisons dangereuses". Stauffenburg Verlag, Tübingen 2000, p. 59.
  9. Kirsten von Hagen: Intermediale Liebschaften: Multiple adaptations of Choderlos de Laclos "Les Liaisons dangereuses". Stauffenburg Verlag, Tübingen 2000, pp. 23-25
  10. Kirsten von Hagen: Intermediale Liebschaften: Multiple adaptations of Choderlos de Laclos "Les Liaisons dangereuses". Stauffenburg Verlag, Tübingen 2000, p. 64.
  11. Dangerous Passions . Letter 6, translated by Franz Blei
  12. Kirsten von Hagen: Intermediale Liebschaften: Multiple adaptations of Choderlos de Laclos "Les Liaisons dangereuses". Stauffenburg Verlag, Tübingen 2000, pp. 23-62.
  13. Jin-ho Hur: Dangerous Liaisons. IMDB, accessed November 9, 2012 .