Former lovers and consummate libertines, the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont exchange letters about their plans for sexual and amorous conquests. The Marquise seeks revenge on the Comte de Gercourt, newly engaged to Cécile de Volanges, and she entrusts her accomplice Valmont with seducing the young woman before her wedding. The Vicomte, for his part, has his sights set on the virtuous and devout Madame de Tourvel. The drama of Les Liaisons dangereuses is set in motion, and all that's left for the readers to do is let themselves be slowly carried away by the Machiavellian and cynical plans of the two depraved aristocrats.

Iconic characters in French literature, Merteuil and Valmont, both allies and rivals, have become archetypes of debauchery and decadent morals of the latter part of the 18th century as the shadow of the Revolution looms. Published in 1782 by an unknown military officer, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1741-1803), Les Liaisons dangereuses is an epistolary novel composed of 175 letters. Dramatic, polyphonic, and rococo, it is inspired by libertine novels of the time and already presents itself as a precursor to the psychological novel of the 19th century. Highly popular for its scandalous reputation upon publication, the book was morally condemned and forgotten throughout the 19th century, which witnessed the triumph of bourgeois morality. Written in a flamboyant and baroque style–very much of the 18th century–it nonetheless remains a masterpiece of French literature, adapted numerous times for the cinema, with the ambiguity of its ending still striking in its modernity. Is it merely a jubilant tale of cruelty, a sharp critique of the morals of the time, or a plea for women inspired by the Enlightenment? Perhaps all of these at once.