Read Les Liaisons dangereuses in Frenchwith every sentence explained

Les Liaisons dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos was first published in 1782. In Passage you read the full text in the original French, marked advanced and filed under historical fiction and romance.

Two brilliant libertines, one cruel game, and every move made by letter.

Paris, a few years before the Revolution. The Marquise de Merteuil wants revenge on the lover who left her, and who is now engaged to Cécile de Volanges, an innocent girl just out of the convent. She asks her old partner in crime, the Vicomte de Valmont, to seduce Cécile before the wedding.

Valmont has a more tempting target in mind: the devout and faithful Madame de Tourvel, whom he meets at his aunt's country house. As the two schemers trade boasts, plans and secrets, their victims pour their hearts into letters of their own, never guessing who else is reading.

Told entirely in 175 letters, Laclos's 1782 Dangerous Liaisons caused a scandal and has never lost its sting. It inspired Stephen Frears's Oscar-winning 1988 film, along with Valmont and Cruel Intentions.

Passage sets the book as a quiet, paginated reader in French. Read at your own pace, and when a sentence stops you, tap it. You get:

• a natural translation of that exact sentence,
• a short note on the grammar, in plain words,
• the key words, which you can save with the sentence they came from,
• all of it in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Turkish or Portuguese, whichever you read best.

It's marked advanced, with richer vocabulary and longer sentences. If it feels heavy, start with an intermediate French book and come back to it. The words you save come back later in short review games, so the book keeps teaching after you close it.