Free French Literature: A Very Short Introduction by John D. Lyons Page A

other letter writers), essentially take up the
functions of the narrator in a conventional single-narrator novel.
They not only tell what happens, but analyse motivations and
predict outcomes. We can consider the novel as having, therefore,
two non-omniscient narrators who are competing with each
other not only to present a certain view of what happens but to
make things happen. Both are cynical rationalists with a keen
understanding of human nature (that is, patterns of behaviour)
but with blindspots that lead them both to ruin. We can see echoes
of La Rochefoucauld in this psychology; Merteuil explicitly states
that she learned about life by reading the works of `the most
severe moralists', and La Rochefoucauld was especially acute
in noting that people are blind to their own susceptibilities and
motivations. Although Valmont and Merteuil consider themselves
completely emancipated from religion and morality, they need
to adjust appearances in order to function within the codes of
their society, codes that are different for men and for women. For
Valmont, as a male libertine, a public reputation as a successful
seducer of women is a source of pride and has little negative
impact on him. For Merteuil, it is quite different. She needs to
seduce imperceptibly and always in circumstances that maintain
for her a public reputation as a pious young widow. Even the men
she seduces must not know that she has seduced them but must
believe that they have seduced her. The unequal status accorded
to men and women by society is thus an important theme and one
that, along with the portrayal of a corrupt and idle aristocracy,
is representative of the contemporary questioning of social
convention and education.

    By the end of the novel, Valmont's and Merteuil's rivalry (the
smouldering remains of an earlier love affair between them) leads
them to take vengeance on each other. Merteuil does this in the
more subtle fashion by exploiting the gap between Valmont's
gendered self-perception as publicly successful libertine seducer,
on the one hand, and his real and passionate love for Madame de
Tourvel, his most difficult conquest to date. Valmont, as Merteuil
saw, is blind to his own nature. Confident in his rationalist stance,
he believes that physical pleasure and virtuosity in seduction are
his only motives. By exploiting the vanity that is indissociable
from this form of male self-image, Merteuil provokes Valmont
to destroy his only chance at emotional fulfilment. Valmont's
subsequent revenge upon Merteuil is much cruder and easier and
is also based on the gender disequilibrium created artificially by
society. He simply leaves the packet of letters to be published, thus
making her a pariah. The discrepancy between Valmont's deepest
emotion and his socially determined vanity marks Les Liaisons
dangereuses as valorizing nature over the social norms that
alienate people from their deeper, hidden selves.
    Flora, fauna, and `nature'
    Laclos's novel is concerned with human nature in the form of
what we would call psychology. What counts is the social world,
and the changes of place from Paris to a country manor are
only described as they inflect the interactions among groups
of people - in this respect, Laclos's work is closer to novels of
the preceding century. But many writers of the 18th century
reflect an explosively growing interest in non-urban spaces
and contextualize human behaviour and perception along a
city/country divide. By mid-century, the work of the Swedish
botanist Carl Linnaeus had reached France, and it became
increasingly fashionable to herboriser, that is, to look for plant
specimens. Buffon (Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon)
published the first volume of his Histoire naturelle, generale
et particuliere in 1749. Flora and fauna from a wide variety of climates became of interest to the general public, and alongside
the new importance accorded to plants and animals