“Truth to tell, the longer I live, the more I'm tempted to think that the only moderately worthwhile people in the world are you and I.”Choderlos de Laclos's novels of sex, power and status tells the story of the Marquis de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, ex-lovers and narcissistic rivals who control the others in their orbit through seduction and gamesmanship. This book has inspired countless adaptations (and interpretations) for cinema, opera and plays. A scathing indictment of pre-Revolution French society. the new edition of the classic epistolary novel comes with thirteen classic paintings of the period.