I think it was Kierkegaard who advised to be aware of entangling alliances. The web of sin in this book is masterfully woven as letters to frame-up an epistolary novel in which each character's letters speak volumes about the characters themselves. The novel was written in the same period as Rousseau in the Napoleonic era, when the novel as a genre was relatively young. Valmont is the penultimate anti-hero and knave who finds decadent pleasure in conquering, as if it were a military campaign, and then abandoning beautiful, prominent women in high society. His cohort the Marquise de Merteuil must be considered one of the great fiends of this new genre, who earns her just rewards. It's fascinating to witness the noose tightening in the exchange of letters among the characters. The dialogue about the nature of love is beautifully articulated in many places, where it is sincere. "And love: does one have it when one wills? Yet one needs it ever." Or "Teach me to live where you are not." So often in this novel love is a high-stakes game played for the perverse joy engendered by the spectacle of the demise of one of the lovers. This is a one of a kind epistolary novel worthy of the acclaim it has received over the centuries for its engaging story line as a morality tale told in the decadent high society of France in the time of Napoleon.