A review by peter_fischer
Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost
3.0
I read this book mainly because it forms the basis of the eponymous opera by Giacomo Puccini.
Young Chevalier des Grieux, from a good provincial French family, falls in with Manon Lescault, a young woman of loose morals, focussed completely on the easy life and entertainment. Although professing to be in love with des Grieux, she takes on wealthy men, while des Grieux turns his hand to cheating at cards in gambling dens. Anyway it all goes horribly wrong and Manon is eventually sent as a convict to Louisiana for prostitution, and the story, which takes a tragic end, continues in the new world.
It turns out this is a pretty racy story, considering it was written in the early 18th century. At some point Manon’s brother actually pimps her to rich Parisians! No wonder the book was originally banned in France. The author, Abbé (!) Prévost, then put in some homilies about virtue over debauchery, to make the book more palatable to the authorities. The homilies take the form of harangues to des Grieux by his friend Tiberge, and are actually rather tedious.
Young Chevalier des Grieux, from a good provincial French family, falls in with Manon Lescault, a young woman of loose morals, focussed completely on the easy life and entertainment. Although professing to be in love with des Grieux, she takes on wealthy men, while des Grieux turns his hand to cheating at cards in gambling dens. Anyway it all goes horribly wrong and Manon is eventually sent as a convict to Louisiana for prostitution, and the story, which takes a tragic end, continues in the new world.
It turns out this is a pretty racy story, considering it was written in the early 18th century. At some point Manon’s brother actually pimps her to rich Parisians! No wonder the book was originally banned in France. The author, Abbé (!) Prévost, then put in some homilies about virtue over debauchery, to make the book more palatable to the authorities. The homilies take the form of harangues to des Grieux by his friend Tiberge, and are actually rather tedious.