Pierre Choderlos De Laclos was born in 1741 in Amiens, France. He spent most of his career as an army officer in garrison towns, enjoying provincial society, writing light verse, and reaching the rank of capitaine-commandant without ever seeing battle. In 1779 he was sent to the island of Aix, wher...

Pierre Choderlos De Laclos was born in 1741 in Amiens, France. He spent most of his career as an army officer in garrison towns, enjoying provincial society, writing light verse, and reaching the rank of capitaine-commandant without ever seeing battle. In 1779 he was sent to the island of Aix, where he wrote * Les Liaisons Dangereuses,* publishing it in 1782. He left the army to enter politics in 1788, just before the French Revolution, was imprisoned twice during the Reign of Terror, and returned to the army as a general under Napoleon in 1800. He died in Italy in 1803.