Читать книгу Collins Letter Writing - Collins Dictionaries - Страница 24

Read the following letter and then decide:

1 Which adjectives you would use to describe the writer’s style.

2 What impression of himself the writer thinks he is creating.

3 What impression of himself he is really creating.

To Madame de Meurteuil

I shall not be seeing you today, my love, and here are my reasons, which I beg you will indulgently accept.

Yesterday, instead of returning here directly, I stopped at the Countess of ____’s, which was not far out of my way, and stayed there for dinner. I did not arrive in Paris until nearly seven o’clock, when I made my way to the Opera where I hoped you might be.

After the performance, I went to revisit my acquaintance of the greenroom. There I found my old friend Emilie surrounded by a host of admirers of both sexes for whom she was that very evening to provide supper at P_, I had no sooner joined the company when the invitation was, by general acclaim, extended to me, and in particular by a short and corpulent little man, who jabbered it out in Dutchman’s French. He I perceived to be the real hero of the occasion, I accepted.

On the way I learned that the house we were bound for represented the price fixed upon for Emilie’s favours to this grotesque creature and that the evening’s supper was in fact to be a sort of wedding feast. The little man could not contain his delight at the prospect of the happiness he was soon to enjoy. He looked so pleased with himself that I was tempted to disturb his complacency: which, as it happens, is what I did.

My only difficulty lay in prevailing upon Emilie: the burgomaster’s riches had made her a little scrupulous. After some hesitation, however, she gave her approval to my plan for glutting the little beer-barrel with wine, so putting him hors de combat for the rest of the night.

The high opinion we had formed of Dutch drinkers led us to employ every known method in our attempts: which succeeded so well that at dessert he no longer had strength enough to hold up his glass. Nevertheless the obliging Emilie and I continud to vie with each other in filling it up. He collapsed at length under the table in a drunken stupor such as cannot but last for a week. We decided then to send him back to Paris, and as he had not kept his carriage, I had him packed into mine and remained behind in his place. Whereupon I received the compliments of the company who retired soon after leaving me in possession of the field. So much amusement, and perhaps my long retirement, has made me find Emilie so desirable that I have promised to stay with her until the Dutchman returns to life.

This kindness I confer in exchange for one she has just done me. I have been using her for a desk upon which to write to my fair devotee – to whom I find it amusing I should send a letter written in bed, in the arms, almost, of a trollop, in which I give her an exact account of my situation and my conduct. Emilie, who read it, split her sides laughing: I hope you will laugh too.

As my letter must be franked in Paris, I am sending it to you; I leave it open. Be so good as to read it, to seal it….Good-bye, my love.

P__

Letter 47 in Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons), by Choderlos de Laclos, from the Vicomte de Valmont to Madame de Meurteuil.