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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Valmont avoid detection of his and the Vicomtesse's dalliance?

2. What does "libertine" generally refer to in 18th-century France?

3. What does Merteuil tell Cécile when they attend the opera together?

4. What else does David Coward, author of the Introduction, insist is a factor in libertine novels?

5. Who notified Madame de Volanges of Cécile and Danceny's romance?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are Merteuil and Valmont's plans for Danceny and Cécile at the beginning of Part II?

2. What does the author of the Introduction say about potential political messages of social commentary in Laclos' novel?

3. What were Laclos' general views on politics and gender relations?

4. What causes Cécile to become worried and sad about her upcoming marriage?

5. Summarize Prévan's "legendary" feat of seduction according to Valmont.

6. How does Madame de Tourvel respond to Valmont's first love letter?

7. Describe Cécile de Volanges.

8. How does Merteuil respond to Valmont's warning?

9. What does Merteuil assert is the reason women become "victims" of seduction?

10. What action does Valmont take to make Madame de Tourvel love him, and what are the results?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Think of the form of this work is an epistolary novel. Do the letters themselves symbolize anything? Danceny writes in letter 150 that "a letter is the portrait of the soul." What does it mean to correspond with another person, and how is it carried out? How does reading an epistolary influence your experience with communication, character relationships, people, dialogue, and so on in a novel? Do the letters serve any purpose besides as a vehicle to express the plot of the novel?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the role that religion, church, and the clergy have in the novel. How does each character treat, refer to, or interact with religion, faith and morality? Explain the reasoning behind the following categorizations of the main characters, based upon the characters' views on, or influence from, religion: Merteuil and Valmont; Madames de Rosemonde, de Volanges, and de Tourvel; Cécile and Danceny.

Essay Topic 3

Examine the role of servants, doctors, confessors, and others of lower social standing as they seem in the novel. Do these barely visible characters have a voice, or any agency? What portions of the plot do they fill? Are there differences in Laclos' presentation of them through their letters, or through their reported interactions with more vocal characters? What potentially political role could they have in the novel--that is, can one interpret their presence, or lack thereof, as opposed to the presence and characterization of the high-society characters, as a political statement? How do members of the upper-class treat, speak to, or refer to members of the servant and lower classes?

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