Choderlos de Laclos

Born in 1741, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos was a French soldier and writer whose fame rests above all on Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons), published in 1782. The novel is widely recognized as an early psychological novel, admired for the way it reveals manipulation, vanity, and desire through a brilliant exchange of letters.

Laclos chose a career in the army, but his literary reputation came from a single extraordinary book rather than a long list of works. That unusual combination—a professional soldier with a fierce eye for social games and human weakness—helps explain the novel’s precise, strategic feel.

He died in 1803, but his influence has lasted for centuries. Readers still return to his work for its elegance, its moral ambiguity, and the chilling way it turns private correspondence into a battlefield.