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Introduction through Editor' Preface

• David Coward, author of the Introduction, offers examples of negative public responses to the novel's publication in 1782 France and abroad.

• Coward discusses Choderlos de Laclos' biography.

• Laclos's publishing history and his liberal views on women and society are discussed.

• During the French Revolution, Laclos occupied both important and insignificant roles.

• As a writer, Laclos was reviled, praised, adapted, and emulated during his own time and since.

• In the 20th century, the novel becomes a highly-regarded, but still controversial, French classic of literature.
• Coward discusses _Les Liaisons Dangereuses_ in the context of the French Enlightenment of the 18th century.

• Laclos' personality and family relationships are examined in context of the Enlightenment.

• The "libertine" tradition of fiction encompassed philosophical literature to outright pornography.

• The popular form of the epistolary novel is ta story told in the form of letters. In this case, the involvement of the...

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