At the beginning of the year, I made a list of classic novels that I had (a) never read or (b) had not read in over 20 years. Dangerous Liasons was a never-read, and with its plot of two tricksters’ nefarious wager over one of them being able to get two unlikely marks into bed, it sounded like a fun read.
I was wrong. The epistolatory form sucked the suspense and fun out of the encounters, Valmont and Merteuil were utterly unsympathetic, and the ‘good’ characters were unforgivably dull. Also, Valmont’s letters to the Presidente de Tourvel, to a modern woman sympathetic to the Me Too movement, were harassing...essentially “you are cruel, because your rejection of my romantic overtures is hurting ME.” I know it’s unfair to judge a work of literature based entirely on modern sentiments, but it was one of many factors that kept me from enjoying this novel very much.