Les Liaisons amicales : desexualizing women in the Riccoboni-Laclos exchange

The 1782 correspondence between Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni and Choderlos Laclos is primarily a discussion of the Marquise de Merteuil, a character in Laclos’ recently published novel, Les Liaisons dangereuses. Riccoboni, a well-known author of the time, writes to Laclos to express her objections to his presentation of such an evil female character, and Laclos responds with a defense of his choice of such a character. Yet through the course of the eight letters. another dispute appears. As Laclos describes Merteuil’s crimes, his desire to continue this exchange with Riccoboni, and the attractive qualities of virtuous female characters, his tone and word choice indicate a sexual manner of perceiving women. Riccoboni responds to this with her own version of Merteuil’s crimes and a refusal to allow Laclos to treat her or other women in terms of their sexuality. In my thesis, I analyze this subtler debate and describe the presence of this same conflict in examples of Riccoboni and Laclos’ fictional works.