From AudioFile
This West End and Broadway hit is based upon a decadent French novel of 1782. Seductions and double crosses abound, which playwright Hampton makes presage the French Revolution. It has been filmed thrice, but not well. Heard here is a BBC production performed with near perfection by a spirited cast directed by Gordon House. The audio is a good deal sexier than the other dramatizations, thanks to the innate suggestiveness of the medium. However, nothing in the script or playing is cheap. On the contrary, its sophistication only emphasizes the tawdriness of the empty, exploitive amusements of the aristocratic generation that would die by the guillotine. Y.R. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Review
"Christopher Hampton's brilliant adaptation...gives a pitiless and searching portrait of the erotic diversions of aristocrats in putrescent pre-revolutionary France." --Daily Telegraph

"Hampton's achievement is to have preserved the satanic magnetism of the twin conspirators while going all out for social comedy. But this is comedy of the highest theatrical kind: edged with danger, replete with pain and forever reminding us that lives are being ruined with the flick of a well-turned phrase." --Guardian



Book Description
The complex moral ambiguities of seduction and revenge make Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782) one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. Its prime movers, the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil--gifted, wealth, and bored--form an unholy alliance and turn seduction into a game. And they play this game with such wit and style that it is impossible not to admire them, until they discover mysterious rules that they cannot understand. In the ensuing battle there can be no winners, and the innocent suffer with the guilty. This new translation gives Laclos a modern voice, and readers will be able to judge whether the novel is as "diabolical" and "infamous" as its critics have claimed, or whether it has much to tell us about a world we still inhabit.


Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The complex moral ambiguities of seduction and revenge make "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" (1782) one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. Its prime movers, the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, gifted, wealthy, and bored, form an unholy alliance and turn seduction into a game—a game which they must win. And they play with such wit and style that it is impossible not to admire them—until they discover that the game has mysterious rules that they cannot understand. In the ensuing vicious battle there can be no victors, and the innocent will suffer with the guilty. This new translation gives Laclos a modern voice, and readers will be able to judge whether the novel is as 'diabolical' and 'infamous' as its critics have claimed, or whether it has much to tell us about the kind of world we ourselves live in.

FROM THE CRITICS

AudioFile - Yuri Rasovsky