Les Liaisons dangereuses Un opéra sens dessus dessous ?

Libertine novel? Moral novel? By juxtaposing Dangerous Liaisons with the representation of attendrissement in the opera, which also permeates the novels with which Laclos is in dialogue, this article shows that his epistolary novel is this singular work which rises to the challenge of representing attendrissement as simultaneously a sentimental and a sensual ecstasy: the romanesque of libertinage is not necessarily incompatible with a certain dynamics of emotion.