SOURCE: “The Moral Structure of Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” The French Review, Vol. XXXVII, No. 3, February, 1964, pp. 383-99.

In the following essay, Greshoff clarifies the fundamental intellectual, psychological, and moral content of Les Liaisons dangereuses.

Les Liaisons dangereuses is an accident both in the life of literature and in the life of Laclos. It is the only novel and the only valid piece of literature he ever wrote. The rest of his work is curious merely because it was written by the author of Les Liaisons dangereuses. Giraudoux describes him in his other works as “déclamatoire, maladroitement badin, terriblement plat et sensible. …”¹ As a novel Les Liaisons dangereuses is unique. Superficially it is part of the XVIIIth century tradition of erotic literature; it has also no doubt been influenced by Clarissa Harlowe and La Nouvelle Héloïse. Nevertheless Les Liaisons dangereuses stands alone and Laclos with greater...