Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Who was Pierre Choderlos de Laclos?
French novelist, official and army general (1741–1803)
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos was born on 18 October 1741 in Amiens, France. He became a notable figure in French literary and military history. Although he spent most of his life as a soldier, he's mainly remembered for his novel, Les Liaisons dangereuses, published in 1782. This book, made up entirely of fictional letters between plotting aristocrats, caused an immediate scandal and secured him a lasting, albeit controversial, place in French literature.
Laclos joined the French artillery as a young man and spent many years in a career that, he admitted, offered few chances for distinction on the battlefield. Much of his early military service was during peacetime, leaving him with a lot of free time while stationed in provincial garrisons. It was during these years that he started writing. He aimed to create something out of the ordinary that would make a lasting impact. With Les Liaisons dangereuses, he succeeded. The novel's main characters, the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, engage in a calculated campaign of seduction and destruction using letters as their weapon and record.
Beyond writing, Laclos had a long and sometimes difficult career in French politics and military affairs. He became secretary to Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, a liberal aristocrat who supported revolutionary causes. During the Revolution, Laclos navigated its dangerous factions with mixed success, even being imprisoned during the Terror. He survived this period and later found new military purpose under Napoleon Bonaparte, rising to general of brigade in the artillery. He served in Italy, participating in sieges and using his skills in ballistics and military engineering.
Laclos married Marie Soulange Duperré, and they had children. His personal life seemed, from available accounts, to contrast sharply with the cynicism and immorality depicted in his famous novel. This irony has been noted by many biographers, who find it striking that a seemingly devoted husband and father wrote one of literature's most insightful depictions of human desire and manipulation.
Laclos died on 5 September 1803 in Taranto, southern Italy, while on active military service. He did not live to see the full impact of his novel, which inspired plays, critical studies, and films over the years. Initially, he was grouped with scandalous or subversive writers like the Marquis de Sade. However, later criticism has recognized Les Liaisons dangereuses as a work of deep psychological and moral insight, not just mere provocation.
Before Fame
Laclos was born into a middle-class family in Amiens and went through military training, ending up at the École d'Artillerie. He became an officer and in the 1760s and 1770s was posted in several provincial areas, including the Île d'Aix, where he worked on fortifications. Since there weren't any major French land wars at the time, his career stalled, which frustrated him but also gave him the time to develop his literary interests.
He started with minor poems and an opera libretto, though these didn't get much notice. Eventually, he focused on a longer project, an epistolary novel, which drew on his observations of aristocratic society and human psychology, as well as the influence of authors like Samuel Richardson and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. This effort culminated in "Les Liaisons dangereuses," completed around 1781 and published in 1782, which sparked immediate and lasting controversy.
Key Achievements
- Authored Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782), one of the most celebrated epistolary novels in Western literature.
- Rose to the rank of general of brigade in the French army under Napoleon Bonaparte.
- Contributed technical military writings on artillery and fortification that were respected within professional circles.
- Served as a senior political secretary to Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, during the early Revolutionary period.
- Survived the political upheavals of the French Revolution, including imprisonment during the Terror, to continue both military and administrative service.
Did You Know?
- 01.Laclos was a genuine expert in ballistics and wrote technical military treatises on artillery, a body of work largely overshadowed by his one famous novel.
- 02.He reportedly told friends before writing Les Liaisons dangereuses that he intended to produce a book that would 'make a noise' and outlast him — an ambition he fulfilled with striking precision.
- 03.Despite authoring one of literature's most cynical portrayals of seduction and betrayal, Laclos's correspondence with his wife Marie Soulange Duperré is considered affectionate and sincere by historians.
- 04.He was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror in 1793, surviving one of the most dangerous periods of the French Revolution before resuming his career under Napoleon.
- 05.Les Liaisons dangereuses was banned or condemned in multiple countries upon publication, yet it went through numerous editions within its first year alone, suggesting widespread clandestine readership.