Text Required —Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Laclos: Letters 1-60 (Letter numbers, not page numbers!). All page numbers in this lesson refer to the Oxford World Classics Edition of the novel.

Link to the book: https://u1lib.org/book/4462226/49a6ae

Assignment:

Start a thread in your assigned group. Your post should be based on the reading questions that are at the end of this document;

Remember: the point of these forums is not to simply answer my questions and then close off discussion; the point is to write a narrative that carefully examines the questions that I ask in order for you to open up discussion with your classmates.

Question:

Take some time to closely analyze the writing style of the letters and examine how their content and style relate to the true nature of the authors. For instance, Valmont uses a lot of double entendre (words or phrases with two or more interpretations) and military imagery to describe his conquests whereas the Marquise de Merteuil draws her image and metaphors from theatre (See where this is explained in the introduction to the novel on page xxii: she plays roles and wears masks). For example Valmont writes: we are fated to be conquerors and we must follow our destiny (14), suggesting that his main concern is male power and