Les Liaisons dangereuses
In a well-known essay on "Les Liaisons dangereuses", which has often been used as a preface to French editions of the novel, André Malraux argues that, despite its debt to the libertine tradition, "Les Liaisons dangereuses" is more significant as the introduction of a new kind of character in French fiction. Malraux writes that the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont are creations "without precedent"; they are "the first [in European literature] whose acts are determined by an ideology".