Illustrating narrative seduction: the example of Choderlos de Laclos's Les Liaisons Dangereuses in the illustrated edition of 1796

The engravings of the 1796 edition of Les Liaisons dangereuses bear witness to the late eighteenth-century belief in a parallel between amorous and narrative seductions. More than mere interpretations of an intrigue, book engravings also offer a valuable insight into contemporaneous conceptualisations of novel-reading. The series studied here can be interpreted as illustrating the early modern theory that what unites reader and author is indeed a dangerous liaison. By presenting a dialogue between these engravings and eighteenth-century reception theories, I argue that book illustrations can help us understand how narrative seduction was believed to operate during the French Enlightenment.