Madame de Tourvel, in despair about the Vicomte, becomes ill and dies.
Cast out of society, she flees Paris and contracts a terrible and disfiguring case of smallpox. With these letters, Danceny takes revenge on the Marquise, making public the details of all her dastardly schemes. Valmont's mortally wounded, but makes peace with Danceny, giving him the incriminating letters he has from the Marquise. The Marquise tells Danceny that Valmont has slept with Cécile, and Danceny challenges the Vicomte to a duel. In obedience to the Marquise, Valmont abruptly leaves Madame de Tourvel in the lurch, but the Marquise still won't have him. She accuses Valmont of being in love with Madame de Tourvel, and tells him he has to leave Madame de Tourvel if he wants her. Not until he threatens suicide does she give in. In time, she falls for him, but she won't sleep with him. He continues the plan with letters, slowing playing with her feelings, her sense of morals, and her faith. Being a faithful married woman, she's scandalized and asks him to leave. He goes along with this fake turn to religious piety and confesses his love to her. Madame de Tourvel, for her part, befriends Valmont and tries to convert him from his depraved ways. Valmont makes himself available to "help" the young couple, then uses the knowledge he's gained to coerce Cécile into having sex with him. Their love is forbidden because of their social class differences (she's rich and he's not), so they have to write and pass letters to one another in secret. She's in love with her music teacher, the Chevalier Danceny. This double seduction forms the main thread of the story.Ĭécile has her own crush to worry about, and it's not her future husband. The Marquise accepts on the condition that Valmont succeed in making Madame de Tourvel fall in love with him. He eventually agrees to help the Marquise with her revenge, on the condition that she has sex with him again. The challenge of ruining a woman with principles appeals to his twisted and inflated sense of self. He intends to win the heart of Madame de Tourvel, a virtuous married woman currently staying with his aunt while her husband's away on business. Valmont, however, has his own game of seduction underway at the moment. She wants Gercourt's bride to be less than innocent and pure when they're married.
She writes to another one of her former lovers, the Vicomte de Valmont, asking him to seduce the young Cécile. The engagement gives her the opportunity she needs.
He's away with the military, however, unknowingly giving time to the Marquise to plan her revenge. Monsieur Gercourt, who broke off their short affair, plans to marry Cécile, the daughter of Madame de Volanges.
One of her former lovers has gotten on her bad side, and she wants revenge. You don't want to get on her bad side, and you definitely don't want to try to control her. She's probably the most dangerous character in Dangerous Liaisons. She's had many lovers, but this isn't widely known because she's forced people's silence. The Marquise de Merteuil is a widow with a reputation for smarts and purity. To amuse themselves, they play around with the lives of others just to see what will happen. The rich folks in this novel have way too much time on their hands. Heads aren't rolling yet and there isn't a reign of terror just now, but there's a clear, steady reign of decadence among the nobility. So we're a few years before the French Revolution, when the lower classes in France turned against the wealthy aristocracy and the whole social structure got turned on its head. Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) Summary
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