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.

肖德洛·德·拉克洛（Choderlos de Laclos, 1741-1803）,法国作家,生于索姆省亚眠市。1780年7月至1781年9月,他构思创作了《危险的关系》,出版后即刻风行一时,引起巨大的社会反响,在作者生前至少印了五十版,但在十九世纪,此书却被法院以“内容淫猥、有伤风化”为由多次列为禁书,作者也因此声名不彰。直到二十世纪中后期,保尔·布尔热对他的揄扬以及波德莱尔有关这部小说的笔记的出版,尤其是二战以后,纪德、马尔罗、吉罗杜、莫罗亚、罗歇·瓦扬、布托尔等作家都对他给予高度评价,恢复了他在文学史上的崇高地位,此书最终取代了卢梭的《新爱洛伊丝》,成为法国文学史上一部不朽的名著。拉克洛成了法国大学课程上规定研读的作家,人们发现他的作品还能十分顺利地经过改编转换到别的传播媒介上。所有这些经改编的影片和剧作不可能百分之百地传达出拉克洛原作的精髓和微妙之处。但应该看到,拉克洛的作品经过屡次加工改造,却总能剪裁得适合流行的时尚潮流的口味。