First published 1782
Marquise de Merteuil proposes a wicked bargain to her former lover, Vicomte de Valmont. She wants him to seduce Cécile, an innocent girl fresh from the convent, to humiliate the Marquise's rival. Valmont accepts but pursues his own prize: the virtuous Madame de Tourvel, a married woman whose reputation for goodness makes her the ultimate conquest. The two aristocrats treat their targets as pieces in an elaborate game, exchanging letters that reveal their cold calculations. Merteuil coaches the naive Cécile while Valmont slowly breaks down Tourvel's resistance. Their victims begin to fight back in unexpected ways. What started as sophisticated entertainment turns into something far more dangerous. The players discover that some games have consequences no one can control, and that even the most skilled manipulators can become trapped by their own schemes.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 19th-century
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: France
Period: 19th-century
418 pages · Paperback · Penguin Classics
Content warnings: gaslighting, sexual-content