Dangerous ties

Shorello de Lacco (1741-1803) was twice talented. Contemporaries knew him as a brigade general in the board of Bonaparte, the creator of the prototype of the modern artillery shell, and as the author of the satirical novel "Dangerous Relations" about the customs of the French aristocracy. The writer turned out to be a gifted artilleryman - the book blew up society stronger than any shell. Only during the life of Shorelo de Laclo, did she come out of the fifty editions. The audience was sure that the heroes of the published scandalous correspondence were real people, situations, passions and intrigues were so recognizable. “Two groups of characters are contrasted in this book: monsters and their victims,” wrote to Andre Morois. “When the author was told:“ You create monsters to fight with them, women like de Mertey do not exist at all, ”De Labo answered:“ Then why is there so much noise? ” The noise has been going on for the third century.

Translation from French and notes of Nadezhda Rykova. Exciting article by Ekaterina Dmitrieva

Ekaterina Evgenievna Dmitrieva is a historian of literature, a leading researcher at the Institute of World Literature named after A. M. Gorky RAS, professor at the Department of Comparative History of Literature of the RSUSU. The author of the monographs" Life of a manor myth: lost and acquired paradise "(in collaboration with O. N. Kuptsova) and" N. V. Gogol in the Western European context: between languages ​​and cultures. " A translator from the French novels Mirabeus, Prince de Linya, Bastida, as well as modern authors - Julien Grack, Antoine Volodin, Valera Novarina