皮埃尔·肖代洛·德拉克洛

皮埃尔·安布罗斯·弗朗索瓦·肖代洛·德拉克洛（法语：Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos，法语：[pjɛʁ ɑ̃bʁwaz fʁɑ̃swa ʃɔdɛʁlo də laklo]，1741年10月18日—1803年9月5日），法国小说家、官员、共济会员和陆军将军，以写书信体小说《危险关系》（1782）而知名。

作为法国文学界的一个独特案例，他在很长一段时间内被认为是与萨德侯爵或雷蒂夫一样的丑闻作家。他是一个对人际关系不抱幻想的军官，也是一个业余作家；然而，他最初的计划是“写一部脱离常规的作品，制造噪音，在他死后还能留在世上”；从这个角度看，他的代表作《危险关系》的名声基本达到了他的目标。这部作品是18世纪小说文学的代表作之一，探讨贵族阶层的风流韵事。它引发了许多批评和分析性评论，并为多部戏剧和电影提供了灵感。

Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos (French: [pjɛʁ ɑ̃bʁwaz fʁɑ̃swa ʃɔdɛʁlo də laklo]; 18 October 1741 – 5 September 1803) was a French novelist, official, Freemason and army general, best known for writing the epistolary novel Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) (1782).

A unique case in French literature, he was for a long time considered to be as scandalous a writer as the Marquis de Sade or Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne. He was a military officer with no illusions about human relations, and an amateur writer; his initial plan was to "write a work which departed from the ordinary, which made a noise, and which would remain on earth after his death"; from this point of view he mostly attained his goals with the fame of his masterwork Les Liaisons dangereuses. It is one of the great examples of novelistic literature of the 18th century, that explores the amorous intrigues of the aristocracy. It has inspired many critical and analytic commentaries, plays and films.

Biography

Born in Amiens into a bourgeois family, in 1761 Laclos began studies at the School of Artillery of La Fère, ancestor of the École Polytechnique. As a young lieutenant, he briefly served in a garrison at La Rochelle until the end of the Seven Years' War (1763). Postings to Strasbourg (1765–1769), Grenoble (1769–1775) and Besançon (1775–1776) followed.

In 1763 Laclos became a Freemason in "L'Union" military lodge in Toul.

Despite a promotion to the rank of captain (1771) Laclos grew increasingly bored with his artillery garrison duties and with the company of soldiers; he began to devote his free time to writing. His first works, several light poems, appeared in the Almanach des Muses. Later he wrote the libretto for an opéra comique, Ernestine, inspired by a novel by Marie Jeanne Riccoboni. The music was composed by the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Its premiere on 19 July 1777, in the presence of Queen Marie Antoinette, proved a failure. In the same year, he established a new artillery school in Valence, which would include Napoleon Bonaparte among its students in the mid-1780s. On his return to Besançon in 1778 Laclos was promoted second captain of the Engineers. In this period he wrote several works which showed his great admiration of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

In 1776 Laclos requested and received affiliation with the "Henri IV" lodge in Paris. There he helped Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans leading the Grand Orient of France. In 1777, in front of the Grand Orient's dignitaries, he delivered a speech in which he urged the initiation of women into Freemasonry.

In 1779, he was sent to Île-d'Aix (in present-day Charente-Maritime) to assist Marc René, marquis de Montalembert in the construction of fortifications there against the British. However, he spent most of his time writing his new epistolary novel, Les Liaisons dangereuses, as well as a Letter to Madame de Montalembert. When he asked for and received six months of vacation, he spent the time in Paris, writing.

Durand Neveu published Les Liaisons dangereuses in four volumes on 23 March 1782; it became a widespread success: 1,000 copies sold in a month, an exceptional result for the time. Laclos was immediately ordered to return to his garrison in Brittany; in 1783 he was sent to La Rochelle to collaborate in the construction of the new arsenal. Here he met Marie-Soulange Duperré, whom he would marry on 3 May 1786, and remain with for the rest of his life. The following year, he began a project of numbering the streets of Paris.