Dangerous Liaisons

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1782

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Preface-Letter 20

Part 1, Letters 21-40

Part 1, Letters 41-50

Part 2, Letters 51-70

Part 2, Letters 71-87

Part 3, Letters 88-100

Part 3, Letters 101-124

Part 4, Letters 125-150

Part 4, Letters 151-175

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Part 1, Letters 41-50Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Letter 41 Summary

25 August: Tourvel to Valmont. She asks him to leave the chateau. He has socially compromised her, and she fears rumors will circulate. She tells him to keep his promise from Letter 35. If he does not leave, then she will.

Part 1, Letter 42 Summary

26 August: Valmont responds to Tourvel’s letter. He says he will leave, as she requests, but asks for something in return. He wants to know who has been telling her such bad things about him, and he wants a final conversation with her, so he can justify his feelings for her. He will then leave, but of course, since he has promised his aunt he would stay there, he will have to fake a letter of business that requires his departure.

Part 1, Letter 40 (Continued) Summary

Valmont lays out his plan to Merteuil. He has promised nothing, since he knows that Tourvel will not fulfill his requests. The conversation he requested is only to serve to get her to make further, future promises. He desperately wants to know who has been speaking ill of him. He cannot find Tourvel’s letters. She must be hiding them in a non-typical place.

Part 1, Letter 43 Summary

27 August: Tourvel responds to Valmont. She says she will not betray her friends, who were only trying to protect her. Furthermore, she will not write to him anymore, and she will not speak to him. He received a letter yesterday and did not use the opportunity to leave. She asks once again that he depart.

Part 1, Letter 44 Summary

28 August: Valmont writes to Merteuil. He has the information he has been searching for: Tourvel loves him. It was not easy, but he and his manservant thought of a ruse by which he, Valmont, could get his hands on Tourvel’s letters. Valmont had his servant begin an affair with Tourvel’s maid; they staged it so that Valmont caught them in bed together. Due to the compromised situation she was in, plus Valmont having offered her 10 louis, she agreed to bring them Tourvel’s letters. He has discovered that Tourvel had kept all that he wrote her, and he also discovered that it is Madame de Volanges who has been betraying him. He will seduce Cécile in revenge. He is leaving shortly for Paris, in part because he must in order to maintain Tourvel’s love, but also to seduce Cécile.

Part 1, Letter 45 Summary

29 August: Tourvel writes to Madame de Volanges. She informs Volanges that Valmont has left, but she is a little bitter about it because Madame de Rosemonde misses him a lot. She hopes to see Madame de Volanges soon, since Rosemonde has sent an invitation for just that with Valmont.

Part 1, Letter 46 Summary

29 August: Danceny writes to Cécile. He admonishes her for changing when she promised him she would not. Last time he saw her, she behaved coldly towards him. He felt abused. He calls her cruel. He tells her he loves her (je vous aime) and asks her to tell him the same. His love for her will only end with his death.

Part 1, Letter 47 Summary

30 August: Valmont writes to Merteuil. He begs her forgiveness for not coming to her straightaway and explains why. He stopped along the way at the house of a Comtesse and had dinner. He then went to the opera, and after not finding the marquise, spent time with his ladies of the “green room” (actresses/prostitutes). He was invited by Émilie and a small, heavy man from the Netherlands. Technically, the man had arranged to be with Émilie, but Valmont did not want that, so he and Émilie got the man so drunk he passed out. Valmont is now in bed with Émilie, using her as a table for writing his letter to the marquise.

Part 1, Letter 48 Summary

30 August: Valmont writes to Tourvel. Valmont speaks of the irresistible power of love. He hopes she will one day experience it too: “Believe me, Madame, cold tranquillity and the torpor of the soul […] do not make for happiness. Only the active passions can lead you to it” (104).

Part 1, Letter 49 Summary

31 August: Cécile writes to Danceny. She responds to his accusations and tells him she must stop loving him and writing to him. His order does not allow for love; plus, she is to be wed to someone else. However, if she were allowed to ever love someone, it would only be him, which she probably should not have mentioned.

Part 1, Letter 50 Summary

01 September: Tourvel writes to Valmont. She reproves him once again for talking about love, which she cannot even risk considering. She counters his arguments about passion and love pointing out how his desires, being unfulfilled, make him unhappy, and asks him how that might happen to her should she follow him. She implores him not to write to her again on this topic.

Letters 21-50 Analysis

In Letter 41, Tourvel sets a counter-example to Valmont’s and the desire for maintaining a reputation. As has already been discussed, Valmont’s desire to know who has been warning Tourvel about him is partly because of his angered ego, which is wrapped up in his reputation as a seductive libertine. For him, there is a positive perspective to having a reputation like his, and thus, having someone insinuate that he is evil angers him. The importance of his reputation and place in society becomes increasingly evident as the novel progresses, as it does for Merteuil and all the others.

In this letter, Tourvel displays how she wrestles with her emotions: She is obviously attracted to Valmont physically and enjoys the flattery of his letters, but she fears for her reputation and uses it as an argument for his departure. Even now, Tourvel still believes in The Need for Morality. Significantly, Tourvel is most likely an older version of Cécile: Her marriage to the President de Tourvel was arranged for her. She never freely experienced love, even a crush, and most likely never heard the types of things she hears from Valmont. He is introducing her to new ideas regarding Love, Lust, and Happiness—ones he thinks may appeal to a woman who has been raised to behave in a certain way and deny herself certain pleasures.

Valmont is very aware of this and seeks to increase her desire for this style of love, but he never argues that her concerns for her reputation are invalid—rather, he argues that she can maintain both. Regardless of his actual intentions, this highlights the importance of reputation and social status in French society. One’s reputation is of the utmost importance, even if it is not a true reflection of one’s behavior.

An important theme takes shape in these series of letters, and that is the connection between Love, Lust, and Happiness. Valmont’s many arguments to Tourvel for why she should let go of society’s notions of sexual morality is because they interfere with pleasure and happiness—reasoning that is emblematic of Libertinism in Pre-Revolutionary French Society. For Valmont, and all the other libertines, the pursuit of happiness through sex is at the core of their belief structure. Naturally, however, as an epitome of French ancien regime virtue, Tourvel offers the counterpoint to his argument by pointing out how he himself has argued that his previous affairs have caused him shame (i.e., unhappiness), and of course, that he has caused the unhappiness of many women. This is proof, she deduces, that sexual pleasure and breaking with traditional mores is not the path to happiness after all, reinforcing her belief in The Need for Morality.

Not only does she make a valid argument, which in itself frustrates Valmont, but he comes to realize that seducing her will require more effort and cunning on his part than anyone with whom he has previously dealt. The focus and attention he is forced to give her, and her inherently antithetical nature to his own, are the leading causes of the developing ambiguity regarding his true feelings for Tourvel. As the novel progresses, his love for her is questioned. The Marquise de Merteuil, for one, will wonder if he is still seducing her to merely increase his reputation and status, or if he has truly fallen in love with her.

Despite Valmont’s focus on seducing Tourvel, he still has time for his libertine adventures, as witnessed in Letter 47’s recitation of the night with Émilie. She is an actress, but as with many female actresses at the time, she also dabbles in high-class prostitution, meaning she sleeps with members of the aristocracy who can afford to lavish her with money and gifts. This letter contains the famous scene in which, after sleeping with her, Valmont writes his letter to Tourvel on Émilie’s buttocks, signifying the way in which, for Valmont, women are little more than objects to be used and discarded at will.