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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 trick Madame de Volanges into receiving his second letter?

2. How does Cécile initially feel about Danceny?

3. What ruse does Valmont use to attempt to secretly rifle through Madame de Tourvel's letters?

4. According to the author of the Editor's Preface, what is the value of a work of literature?

5. What literary tradition does Coward see as applicable?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the Editor state in the Editor's Preface?

2. What does Madame de Volanges say about Valmont to warn Madame de Tourvel against becoming too friendly with him?

3. How does Cécile feel about Danceny's first letter?

4. What does Merteuil suggest, in different forms, to Cécile and Valmont?

5. What are the general contents of Valmont's love letters to Madame de Tourvel?

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

7. What was Choderlos de Laclos' position in society? Describe his family life.

8. What serious warning does Valmont give Merteuil?

9. What defines or designates the "libertine" literary tradition?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the theme of nature and artifice, especially with reference to Cécile, Danceny, Merteuil, and Valmont. What are the natural personalities, interests, motivations, and moralities of these characters? How do they consciously or unconsciously change themselves to show their own or others' various desires? Are nature and artifice associated with any kind of moral message in the novel? How does Merteuil's letter 81, in which she offers the story of her youth and her sexual education, complicate the distinctions between nature and artifice? When do Cécile and Danceny exhibit artificial behavior? How are nature and artifice made ambiguous in Valmont's seduction of Madame de Tourvel?

Essay Topic 2

What are Merteuil and Valmont's "ethics" of seduction? How do they plan their seductions? What motivates them to seduce and ruin others? What rules of letter writing, evidence gathering, and record-keeping do they have for themselves and for others? Do you see any ironic or hypocritical behavior in Valmont or Merteuil? Why do they constantly write to each other of their own plans, offer their criticisms or praises of each others plans, tell stories of seductions past, and warn each other of potential dangers?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the theme of women's sexuality in _Les Liaisons Dangereuses_. How is desire, in particular, expressed in the female characters? How do Cécile's, Merteuil's, and Madame de Tourvel's different experiences with sex, rape, seduction, courtship, initiation, and betrayal affect their character development, their roles in the plot of the novel, and their interactions with other male and female characters? What connections to contemporary French ideas of morality and gender roles do the sexuality of the female characters have? How is feminine sexual awareness or sexual activity opposed to masculine sexual awareness or sexual activity? How do other characters, or contemporary French high society, view women who are sexually experienced? Can you apply modern feminist critical theory to this discussion?

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