Les Liaisons Dangereuses, by Peirre Choderlos de Laclos , is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics : All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influencesbiographical, historical, and literaryto enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. Love . . . sex . . . seduction. Of the three, only the last matters. Love is a meaningless word, and sex an ephemeral pleasure, but seduction is an amusing game in which victory means power and the ability to humiliate one’s enemies and revel with one’s friends. So it is for the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, two supremely bored aristocrats during the final years before the French Revolution. Together they concoct a wildly wicked wager: If Valmont can successfully seduce the virtuous wife of a government official, Madame de Tourvel, then Madame Merteuil will sleep with him again. But Madame Merteuil also wants Valmont to conquer the young and innocent former convent schoolgirl, Cécile Volanges. Can he do both?

When Les Liaisons Dangereuses was first published in 1782, it both scandalized and titillated the aristocracy it was aimed against, who publicly denounced it and privately devoured it. Today we still recognize its relevance, for what could be more contemporary than its appalling image of everyday evil small, selfish, manipulative, and mean. Alfred Mac Adam, Professor at Barnard CollegeColumbia University, teaches Latin American and comparative literature. He is a translator of Latin American fiction and writes extensively on art.

肖德洛·德·拉剋洛（Choderlos de Laclos, 1741-1803），法國作傢，生於索姆省亞眠市。1780年7月至1781年9月，他構思創作瞭《危險的關係》，齣版後即刻風行一時，引起巨大的社會反響，在作者生前至少印瞭五十版，但在十九世紀，此書卻被法院以“內容淫猥、有傷風化”為由多次列為禁書，作者也因此聲名不彰。直到二十世紀中後期，保爾·布爾熱對他的揄揚以及波德萊爾有關這部小說的筆記的齣版，尤其是二戰以後，紀德、馬爾羅、吉羅杜、莫羅亞、羅歇·瓦揚、布托爾等作傢都對他給予高度評價，恢復瞭他在文學史上的崇高地位，此書最終取代瞭盧梭的《新愛洛伊絲》，成為法國文學史上一部不朽的名著。拉剋洛成瞭法國大學課程上規定研讀的作傢，人們發現他的作品還能十分順利地經過改編轉換到彆的傳播媒介上。所有這些經改編的影片和劇作不可能百分之百地傳達齣拉剋洛原作的精髓和微妙之處。但應該看到，拉剋洛的作品經過屢次加工改造，卻總能剪裁得適閤流行的時尚潮流的口味。