Les Liaisons dangereuses, « matière à recycler » : que reste-t-il du roman de Laclos dans Lady Susan de Jane Austen ?

Abstract

This paper focuses on the “recycling” of Choderlos de Laclos’s Les Liaisons dangereuses in Lady Susan, one of Jane Austen’s earliest works. While the novelist did not rewrite Les Liaisons dangereuses, she did “recycle” its material on several levels, reusing certain elements of the plot, exploiting the form of epistolary polyphony and, above all, drawing inspiration from the character of the Marquise de Merteuil to create her own heroine. By examining these three points, the paper seeks to shed light on what might be considered the “residue” of Laclos’s novel in that of Austen.