Two radically different novels, written over two centuries apart. And yet I found a commonality yesterday that I felt was worth sharing. In Helen Constantine‘s introduction to the Penguin Classics edition of Laclos‘ most notorious and celebrated work, she touches on the aristocratic social pressures felt by Valmonte and Merteuil that prevent them from succombing to any ‘real’ emotion throughout the entirety of the novel. She summarises thus: In that debased society love is viewed as a failing, a weakness, and something to be avoided at all costs. Valmonte’s connection with Tourvel is the closest we get to raw emotion … Continue reading A Generation X reading of Dangerous Liaisons