While I did nearly lose patience for this towards the home stretch, you can't deny such high stakes drama and gossip! It's what soap operas and teen drama wish they could have but lack because NOBODY can recreate the pillow talk and letter writing skill that must have been used in France in this era! I've seen some of Napoleon's letters to Josephine... YIKES!! Hot stuff!

It did get mildly repetitive, simply due to the number of characters scheming and meddling. Due to the letters format of this novel, I'm really shocked at how large the scope was; you really get a good feel of the community that these characters lived in. Obviously it's a novel slanted to the upper echelons of society; who else would have all this time for the games of seduction?

As a woman, it's a shocking scene. Young women are taken advantage of in what would nowadays have become a rape scene, and older more experienced women are playing the raunch card in lieu of real power. History certainly never played fair, and neither do the Viscount and Marquise, genius characters in their constructed analysis of human relationships! Bravo, Choderlos! God, what would he make of us now?