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Manon Lescaut (Penguin Classics)

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The Abbe Prevost was the first translator of Richardson's novels in France, as well as a precursor of the Romantic movement. This tale was the inspiration for two famous operas (Massenet and Puccini) as well as a forerunner of many formulaic love stories that came after. One has to remember that this was written in the earlry part of the 18th Century, and there was not any formula before it, at least in terms of the heroine. Manon is the anti-heroine, the woman-in-red, the Eve that gives her partner over to the fates as a result of her easily-compromised sensibility.

She can't turn down her creature comforts, even when it means sacrificing her "true love," her Romeo, for an older, but more solvent, lover, in instance after instance.

Manon is one of the first unsympathetic heroines in literature (let's forget about Eve if we can) , a precursor of Emma Bovary in many respects. Let's also remember that she appears in during the , "golden age" of sentimental fiction in France and Europe generally (the ealry 1700s) . Women are depicted in this era as archetypically virtuous and angelic, or unambiguously sexual (thinking particularly of the late Restoration English stage). What we have in Manon is an amalgam, neither entirely saint, nor entirely sinner. She is the Madonna and the Magdaleine, part angel, part succubus, but an entirely new persona on the European literary stage. This is the reason that she had such an impression on the European artistic imagination. She represents a new dichotomy, a new figure that represents what Henry Adams would have suggested as a representation of the sacred and the profane, the mud and the cathedral.

Many years ago I read the classic Chinese novel "Chin Ping Mei" in which overindulgence in sex, wine, and food occurs so regularly that by the end of the hundreds of pages, the reader is glutted and uninterested in more. This, people say, was the Buddhist message of the novel-that the sensual, material world is meaningless. MANON LESCAUT reminded me of that novel because the single moralizing theme-the wasted life of a talented young aristocrat who falls madly in love with a girl of dubious character-dominates so completely that nothing else really matters. The various characters, while potentially interesting, are never built up much, due to subordination to the moral lesson. No matter how many times the beautiful Manon betrays her impetuous lover, he forgives her and indulges in his passion more than ever. His father and friends despair. Jail, murder, betrayal, gambling, prostitution, and eventual exile are only some of the results this passion delivers. The denouement of the novel occurs in far-off New Orleans, about which, it seemed to me, the author had absolutely no idea. An opera was later written based on this minor classic of French literature. I could not say that it is a wonderful piece of writing, nor that many readers will thrill to its ups and downs. You can read it in a short while; it will hold your attention and you will have the satisfaction of being able to say you read it. But, at the end of the day, French literature offers a lot more than MANON LESCAUT.

A lot of people give poor Manon a very hard time, comparing her to the first sinner, Eve, who by the way, is no more guilty of sin than Adam. For it's time in history this love story was was right up there with the raciest soap operas of all time, even being banned in parts of France, but the best way to make a book popular with everyone is to ban it. That simply guarantees it's success. The book was written by Antoine-Francois Prevost, who was in and out of schools, studying to become a priest and must have come close enough to earn the title of Abbe, so that people started calling him Abbe Prevost.

This novel was written 117 years before a story very similar to it entitled La Dame aux Camelias (The Lady of the Camelias) by Alexandre Dumas (fils) or junior, from which many plays, movies, ballets and operas form thier basis.La Dame aux Camï¿1/2lias (Oxford World's Classics) The opera is La Travaota by Giuseppe Verdi. This story too, spawned many plays, movies, ballets and at least two operas. I have both these ballets, and they piqued my interest into the reading of the novels. They are both very moving and touching love stories.

Manon was only around 15 years old when the then 17 year old de Grieux met and fell in love with her. She was a very beautiful, but larcenous little creature from the very beginning, yet de Grieux was not above living off the wages of sin either. So, his downfall was as much his fault as hers, maybe a bit more so, because he had the advantages of seminary training, and she had no formal education. Her family was sending her to become a nun when she ran away with de Grieux in the first place. Manon caused de Grieux much heartache, but he was so much in love, he simply could not give her up, even though he suspected that she would take up with the very next man who offered her the luxuries she desired. I can understand it. Yes, I was in love once, to a mate who caused me heartache too, but one mistake was all she was guilty of, and forgiveness was all she needed. Forgiveness was offered to Manon also, but she could not learn from her mistakes, and she wound up being deported to a penal colony in New Orleans, America where hundreds of prostitutes and other malcontents were sent to be rid of them. Poor Manon; her beauty, even there, was to work against her well being, and since de Grieux had followed her to New Orleans, when a man there tried to take her, de Grieux fought for her, and wounded the man who just happened to be the nephew of the Govenor of the colony. De Grieux was afraid he had killed the man, so he and Manon ran off into the wilderness where poor sick Manon died a few days latter. You may tear up when you read how de Grieux had to bury Manon. It's very, very sad, and many readers have been moved by this story. This kind of love story never grows old. Look at Romeo and Juliet for instance. No, it never grows old.

Partially mirroring the author's own life this novel (originally
A MAN OF QUALITY, 1728) ranks as the quintessential tale of passion run amuck; a young man of good family is instantly seduced by his own naïve infatuation for a young, beautiful, frivolous girl. Blithely forsaking his clerical studies the Chevalier (Order of Malta), Des Grieux (whose first name the author coyly withholds) throws himself headlong into his newfound passion for the coquettish courtesan; shameless with his best friend, Tiberge, studying for the priesthood, and his decorous father, DG discards all common sense, family decency and fraternal loyalty in order to pursue his one-sided affair with flirtatious Manon.

Time and again desperate Des Grieux is deceived the heartless girl and even her unscrupulous brother; yet he is always converted to his state of adoration by her pleas and tears. In vain do his friends warn him that he is rushing headlong into ruin---financial, social and legal. But he insists on risking All for Love! After having engaged in fraudulent schemes to rob and embarrass her lecherous lovers, DG continues to demonstrate poor judgment for Her sake.

Often weeping and even fainting the male protagonist reveals himself weak in typically "heroic" behavior, but strong in his passion. While the female protagonist is utterly selfish and manipulative, DG's male friends prove loyal and forgiving to the extreme. Especially Tiberge, his dearest friend, provides comfort, emotional refuge, sage advice and ready money for DG's excesses--ever urging him to return to the church's fold. Ah, but will Manon ever regret and reform her ruthless lifestyle? Does she live merely to enjoy her power over helpless men? Is Love the only way left for her redemption; will she realize it in time? Why does God seem to turn his back on the hapless pair--just when DG wants to make an honest woman of her? Is this a subtle sub-theme of Prevost, who himself flirted with a religious vocation?

The first-person format is one of double narration, but DG proves painfully honest in his expose of amorous affliction and wild abuse of his friends' and family's resources--freely admitting that he repeatedly rejected common decency and loyalty to his sacred career. This 1948 edition, translated by L.W. Tancock, is printed with excessively long paragraphs, sometimes only two per page, which might discourage many readers. MANON LESCAUT served as literary inspiration for Dumas' La Dame Aux Camellias, also known as CAMILLE. In fact his romantic hero, Armand Duval, actually presents his Marguerite, dying of consumption, with a copy of MANON. Does he consider her equally heartless? MANON LESCAUT remains one of the most famous 18th century French novels.

Great book. The best of what French literature has to offer. A story of deceit, love, devotion and dedication.