Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Moral ‘Usefulness‘

Abstract

In his rather sketchy notes on Choderlos de Laclos' Les Liaisons dangereuses, Baudelaire observes that this novel is a “livre de moraliste aussi haut que les plus élevés, aussi profond que les plus profonds.” Laclos himself seems to have had a similar view of his purpose in writing; at least in one of his letters to Mme Riccoboni he speaks confidently of having sought to create “l'impression d'horreur que le vice doit toujours exciter” (O.C., p. 712). But if no one, and least of all Mme Riccoboni, who had written to protest as a Frenchwoman against what she could not believe was a true picture of contemporary French life, has ever denied Laclos the power of horrifying his readers, seldom since the publication of the work has this power been granted quite the moralistic face-value ascribed to it by the novelist. Even Baudelaire apparently felt its value was relative, Les Liaisons dangereuses, like other “livres libertins,” having gained in usefulness from the passage of time and the progressive degeneration of standards: “Le mal se connaissant,” he remarks in the same notes, “était moins affreux et plus près de la guérison que le mal s'ignorant. G. Sand inférieur à de Sade” (O.C., p. 738).