ABSTRACT

Promiscuity often features in libertine writing as part of the libertine’s insistence upon freedom. But the values and meanings of this sexual freedom vary greatly from period to period and from one libertine writer to another. This chapter sets some of the different strands of libertine promiscuity into dialogue, with discussion of Tirso de Molina’s The Trickster of Seville, Laclos’ Dangerous Liaisons, and Sade’s Philosophy in the Bedroom. The libertine’s ethical justifications for promiscuity here range from rebellion against a repressive society or religion to an insistence on the truths of nature. In repeatedly seeking to justify his or her actions, the libertine poses the question, is an ethics of pleasure ever possible, and what would it take to bring it into meaningful existence? This discussion provides a background to an analysis of the work of Colette, who radicalised the writing of sex and desire, and whose novels and memoirs deftly dispute and revise the libertine tradition.