The story’s themes of vanity and betrayal are so universal that it has been successfully adapted across various media and time periods:

The plot is set in motion by a wager: Merteuil challenges Valmont to corrupt the virginal to spite a former lover. Valmont, however, has his sights on a more difficult prize—the saintly and married Madame de Tourvel . For these libertines, seduction is a form of theatre where the ultimate goal is total psychological domination. The Price of Victory

wins her war against Valmont but loses everything else—her reputation, her fortune, and even her beauty to smallpox.