Manon Lescaut
![]() Title page of the standalone 1753 edition | |
Author | Antoine François Prévost |
---|---|
Original title | Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux, et de Manon Lescaut |
Language | French |
Genre | Novel |
Publication date | 1731 |
Publication place | France |
Media type | |
Original text | Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux, et de Manon Lescaut at French Wikisource |
Translation | The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut at Wikisource |
The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut (French: Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux, et de Manon Lescaut [istwaʁ dy ʃ(ə)valje de ɡʁijø e d(ə) manɔ̃ lɛsko]) is a novel by Antoine François Prévost. Published in 1731, it is the seventh and final volume of Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité (Memoirs and Adventures of a Man of Quality).
The story, set in France and Louisiana in the early 18th century, follows the hero, the Chevalier des Grieux, and his lover, Manon Lescaut. Controversial in its time, the work was banned in France upon publication. Despite this, it became very popular and pirated editions were widely distributed. In a subsequent 1753 edition, the Abbé Prévost toned down some scandalous details and injected more moralizing disclaimers. The work was to become the most reprinted book in French literature, with over 250 editions published between 1731 and 1981.[1]
Plot summary
[edit]The seventeen-year-old Chevalier des Grieux, a a seminary student and the younger son of a noble family, falls in love at first sight with Manon, a common woman on her way to a convent. He persuades her to run away with him, disappointing his father and forfeiting his hereditary wealth. In Paris, the young lovers enjoy a blissful cohabitation, while des Grieux struggles to satisfy Manon's taste for luxury. He acquires money by increasingly desperate means: borrowing from his unwaveringly loyal friend Tiberge, cheating gamblers, stealing, and murder. On three occasions, des Grieux's wealth evaporates (by theft, in a house fire, etc.), prompting Manon to have sex with a richer man for money because she cannot stand living in penury.
![Painting of a Des Grieux and Manon on a rowboat, gazing nobly into the distance while they are rowed ashore with low-class fellow travelers](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/93/AlbertLynch_The_JollyBoat_Large.jpg/220px-AlbertLynch_The_JollyBoat_Large.jpg)
Manon is deported to New Orleans as a prostitute and des Grieux travels with her. They pretend to be married and live in idyllic peace for a while. Des Grieux reveals their unmarried state to the Governor, Étienne Perier, and asks to be wed to Manon. Perier's nephew, Synnelet, sets his sights on winning Manon's hand. In despair, des Grieux challenges Synnelet to a duel and knocks him unconscious. Thinking he has killed the man and fearing retribution, the couple flee New Orleans. They venture into the wilderness of Louisiana, hoping to reach an English settlement. Manon dies of exposure and exhaustion and des Grieux buries her, in the tragic climax of the tale. Heartbroken, he is taken back to France by Tiberge.
Composition and publication
[edit]Prévost likely composed Manon Lescaut in March and April 1731.[2] At the time, he was in Amsterdam, and was writing quickly to satisfy his contract with The Compagnie des Libraires d'Amsterdam.[2] The story was first published as volume VII of his successful novel Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité, and was released with volumes V and VI in May 1731.[3]
![Black and white etching of de Grieux on his knees, beginning to dig, broken sword on the ground, gazing sadly at Manon's body](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/Je_placai_l%27idole_de_mon_coeur_dans_une_large_fosse_%28cropped%29.png/220px-Je_placai_l%27idole_de_mon_coeur_dans_une_large_fosse_%28cropped%29.png)
The narrative of Manon Lescaut is set apart from the main events of Mémoires et aventures with a preface and a preamble.[4] The preface, titled "Avis de l'Auteur" ("Note from the author"), explains that the story seemed too large to include within the main narrative.[5] It also says the story will be a morally-instructive example for readers, who will learn not to imitate des Grieux.[6] The preamble is narrated by the unnamed "man of quality" (French: homme de qualité). He witnesses a group of prostitutes being deported. Curious about a particularly beautiful one (Manon), he speaks with the lover travelling with her (des Grieux). Two years later, he encounters des Grieux again, and asks to hear the full story of his experience in America.[7]
A substantially revised edition appeared as a standalone publication in 1753.[8] The standalone volume was titled Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut,[9] which was the subtitle of volume VII of Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité.[10] This edition claimed on its title page to be published in Amsterdam by the Compagnie des Libraires, but was actually published in Paris by François Didot.[11] In this edition, Prévost modified some of his most sensationalist language,[11] added a new scene where Manon resists the seduction of an Italian prince,[12] and rewrote the ending to replace des Grieux's religious conversion with a more secular morality.[11] The 1753 edition also added eight illustrations and an allegorical vignette on the first page.[13]
Style
[edit]The story is delivered as a long speech to the protagonist of Prévost's Mémoires et aventures, who is known only as "the man of quality" (French: Homme de Qualité), narrated by des Grieux nine months after Manon's death.[14][15] As such, it is an early example of the French genre of the confessional récit.[16] All events are recounted in the first person, and shaped by des Grieux's retrospective self-justifications.[15] His telling frequently interrupts the narrative with apostrophes to absent figures and expressions of intense emotion.[17] When he describes Manon, he often stutters or struggles to find words.[17]
The novel does not use quotation marks, even when des Grieux relates what other characters have said.[11]
Major themes
[edit]![Painting of Des Grieux, looking defeated, kneeling in front of a badly-dug hole, next to Manon's corpse](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e6/The_Burial_of_Manon_Lescaut_by_Pascal_Dagnan-Bouveret.png/220px-The_Burial_of_Manon_Lescaut_by_Pascal_Dagnan-Bouveret.png)
Tragic love
[edit]The story is particularly remembered for its tragic lovers, with des Grieux and Manon being compared to Romeo and Juliet and Tristan and Iseult.[18] The scholar Jean Sgard argues that all of Prévost's writing, including Manon Lescaut, is ultimately about "the impossibility of happiness, the pervasiveness of evil and the misfortune attaching to the passions," all of which lead to "mourning without end".[19] Although the book depicts its protagonists as suffering due to their poverty, it is not a populist novel that advocates for social reform.[20] Instead, the novel responds with sadness and resignation to their unfair suffering.[20] It is an early example of the emerging sentimental novel, in which love can justify anything, and important moral value is placed on strong emotion.[21]
Scandalizing immorality
[edit]On the novel's first publication, the characters and their choices were seen as shockingly immoral.[22] Des Grieux's rejection of the priesthood in favor of a sexual relationship without marriage, and his crimes of fraud and murder, challenged readers' expectations of acceptable actions for the hero of a novel.[23] Manon's decision to have sex for money at several points in the novel, and her general taste for pleasure and luxury, also seemed irreconcilable with her narrative role as a sympathetic love object.[23] Both were sometimes seen as corrupted characters,[23] and the novel's realistic depiction of Paris's "low life" was unusual and potentially threatening.[24] Although the frame narrative claims to disavow the characters' misbehavior, this is usually seen as a "thin pretense".[25] The scandal was intensified by the historical setting of the novel: the story is set fifteen years before the year Prévost wrote it, so it takes place during the during the final years of Louis XIV's conservative and orderly reign, rather than during the regency of King Louis XV when stories of corruption would be less surprising.[26]
Social rank and money
[edit]![A cheerful Manon in an elegant dress stands in a doorway next to a disheveled gentleman, and holds an elegant mirror up to the approaching des Griex](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Voici_l%27homme_que_j%27aime_%E2%80%94_Manon_Lescaut_%28cropped%29.png/220px-Voici_l%27homme_que_j%27aime_%E2%80%94_Manon_Lescaut_%28cropped%29.png)
The novel is unusual in the French tradition for its detailed depiction of lower-class locations and activities, especially the criminal world.[28] Manon is considered "the first commoner heroine in French fiction",[29] and the gulf in social rank between her and the noble des Grieux is an obstacle to their love.[30] Des Grieux and Manon sometimes struggle to understand each other due to their different backgrounds.[31] For example, she does not understand why des Grieux is surprised and upset after she acquires money from other lovers; her different background leads her to see these as practical affairs, which do not threaten her love for des Grieux.[31][32] Their difference in rank is also apparent in the different punishments they recieve for their transgressions.[33] When both lovers are imprisoned for some of their crimes, des Grieux's aristocratic status shields him from the worst consequences while Manon ends up deported.[33] Des Grieux often assumes — correctly — that even complete strangers will be willing to help him, if they share his aristocratic background.[34] The novel thus highlights how justice is enforced unequally for different ranks of society.[33]
![Elegant and detailed illustration of Manon de Grieux gazing tearfully at each other in a shabby room](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Elle_s%27assit_lorsque_nous_f%C3%BBmes_seuls_.._%28IFF_8%29%2C_G.11541%282%29_%28cropped%29.jpg/220px-Elle_s%27assit_lorsque_nous_f%C3%BBmes_seuls_.._%28IFF_8%29%2C_G.11541%282%29_%28cropped%29.jpg)
A distinct, and even greater challenge is their lack of money.[30] As an aristocrat, des Grieux is barred from ordinary employment; he could earn a professional income in the church, the military, or the law, but only if he still had his father's support.[35] The literary scholar Haydn Mason describes the novel's setting as "a harsh and sordid world, motivated almost universally by money."[35] Manon Lescaut is often highlighted as the first French novel to treat money as a major theme.[30][36] Exact numbers are provided throughout the novel, an unusual choice which contributes to the novel's realism.[37] Manon begins the novel with a dowry of 300 livres, which is less than a tenth of an ordinary dowry for a woman entering a convent.[38] The annual salary for a servant (Manon and de Grieux each keep one) was 100 livres, while Manon and de Grieux consider a "respectable but simple" annual income to be 6,000 livres per year.[38] The financial gap between the lovers and their servants is large, but the gap between them and their patrons is even larger: two of Manon's lovers offer her 20,000 and 30,000 livres as annual spending money.[38]
The character of Manon
[edit]Since the novel's first publication, substantial critical analysis has focused on the interpretation of Manon's character.[39] Because Manon's words and actions are always related through the filter of des Grieux's restrospective storytelling, readers can speculate about her real thoughts, feelings, and intentions.[40]
The earliest reviews in 1733 saw Manon as unexpectedly sympathetic, a catin (whore) who was unworthy and yet appealing due to the sincerity of her love for des Grieux.[41][42] She was both blamed and forgiven for des Grieux's corruption.[43] The 1753 illustrations reinforced the image of Manon as someone to be loved, pitied, and forgiven for her mistakes.[44] Eighteenth-century readers also saw Manon and des Grieux as helpless, fated to a tragic ending.[45] The crimes of both were equally justified by their love and their financial need.[45]
![Bright red etching of a nude woman seductively offering an apple](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/The_Story_of_Manon_Lescaut_and_the_Chevalier_Des_Grieux_%28cropped%29.jpg/220px-The_Story_of_Manon_Lescaut_and_the_Chevalier_Des_Grieux_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Manon's reputation began to change in the nineteenth century, as she became a near-mythological figure.[46] Rather than being a simple, lighthearted girl of common birth, she was depicted as either a femme fatale who corrupts des Grieux, or as a hooker with a heart of gold who is redeemed through her death.[46] Adaptations like the popular opera Manon (1884) characterized Manon as powerfully seductive.[46] Alexandre Dumas fils, whose novel The Lady of the Camellias (1848) was heavily inspired by Manon Lescaut, wrote of Manon: "you are sensuality, you are instinct, you are pleasure, the eternal temptation of man."[46] The literary historian Naomi Segal summarizes this period as one in which most critics "tend to view Manon as if she were a real woman and to heap upon her all the myths which operate within sexual politics in the non-fictional world".[47]
Twentieth-century scholarly interpretations tended to see Manon as the victim, not of her own weakness, but of various social systems.[48] For these readers, des Grieux's version of events is considered suspect,[49] and it is important to imagine how Manon might have narrated her story differently.[48][15] Feminist theorists like Nancy K. Miller and Segal see Manon as a narrative victim of patriarchy.[48] Cultural-historical theorists see the novel as a conflict between aristocratic and bourgeois ideologies; Manon is marginalized by her class, but makes savvy decisions to strategically ensure her survival.[48] Outside of academia, modern readers sometimes find Manon underdeveloped as a character.[50] Twenty-first century adaptations reinforced a sociological interpretation of Manon's character.[51] Several adaptations translate the story to new time periods and historical situation, in which Manon is always a non-conformist who boldly pursues love despite disadvantaged circumstances.[52]
Male friendship
[edit]Des Grieux's friendship with Tiberge is a noteworthy example of idealized male friendship and male homosocial desire in the eighteenth century.[18] At the time, ethical treatises commonly described true friendship as a source of moral improvement.[53] The prefatory "Foreword to the Reader", which claims to explain and justify the narrative, presents Manon and Tiberge as representatives of passion and friendship, or vice and virtue, who compete for des Grieux's allegiance.[54] The literary scholar Joe Johnson argues that the failure of des Grieux and Tiberge's friendship is a historically important challenge to the legitimacy of male friendship.[55]
Reception
[edit]Manon Lescaut gained popularity gradually.[56] When first published in 1731 as part of Mémoires et aventures, it was not discussed separately from the rest of the novel.[56] Over the next few years, it was increasingly seen as a highlight of that novel.[56] Reviewers universally praised the novel, especially for its success inducing tears.[57] Mémoires et aventures sold well in Holland and England on its first release, and a 1732 German translation was also successful, but it was largely ignored in France until 1733.[58]
In July 1733, the release of a new edition in Paris prompted a review in the clandestine Journal de la Cour ed de Paris, which brough enough attention to the book that the famous author Voltaire learned of it.[58][42] On October 5, the French censors (who needed to approve all new publications) seized the copies currently for sale due to the book's morally questionable content.[58][b] This effective ban led to a sudden increase in popularity.[56] As part of this new popularity, Manon Lescaut was printed separately from Mémoires et aventures several times in 1733 and 1734,[59] though these were unauthorized reprints.[41] In 1753, Prévost proposed a high-quality revised edition of as a standalone narrative, which appeared in 1756.[60] The standalone volume was published with the title Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux, et de Manon Lescaut,[60] which is typically shortened to Manon Lescaut.[61] Both Mémoires et aventures and the standalone Manon Lescaut were reprinted frequently, with twenty editions of the first and eight of the latter appearing between 1731 and Prévost's death in 1763.[60]
Interest in the novel waned at the start of the nineteenth century, followed by another dramatic increase in popularity in 1830,[42] when it was adapted as a ballet.[46] Many further adaptations followed, with new reprints of Manon Lescaut each year.[46] In the late nineteenth century, editions were released with prefaces written by the famous French authors Alexandre Dumas fils in 1875 and Anatole France in 1878.[62]
Adaptations
[edit]The first stage adaptation of Manon Lescaut was in 1772.[63] This was a comedy in four acts titled La Courtisane verteuse (The Virtuous Courtesan), attributed to Brenner à C. Ribié.[64] It attempted to mix a sensitive and emotional portrayal of the lovers with some humour,[64] but reviewers found it far inferior to the novel.[63] There were a few dramas in the eighteenth century and the Romantic period, followed by a larger number in the early twentieth century.[65] Relatively few of the early theatrical adaptations of Manon Lescaut have survived.[66] Although ballets and operas of Manon Lescaut became very popular,[67] only three theatrical dramas had even a modest success: La Courtisane verteuse (1772), Manon Lescaut et le chevalier Desgrieux (1820), and Manon Lescaut (1851).[64] All three include some incidental music, and the 1820 melodrama is also accompanied by a ballet.[67] These adaptations dramatize the narrative in similar ways.[62] The plot is simplified to one instance of infidelity, a reconciliation, and then the final tragedy.[62] Key scenes which are consistently included are the reconciliation at Saint-Sulpice, the scene at G. M.'s, the scene with the Italian prince, and des Grieux's desperate burial of Manon in Louisiana.[62] The literary scholar Jean Sgard argues that, by reducing the complexity of the narrative, these adaptations present the lovers as being disproportionately punished for a single mistake, rather than capturing the novel's feeling of a gradual decline into immorality.[68]
The most renowned adaptations of Manon Lescaut are the operas by Daniel Auber (1856), Jules Massenet (1884), and Giacomo Puccini (1893).[63]
Dramas, operas and ballets
[edit]- La Courtisane verteuse (1772), a theatrical comedy in four acts by Brenner à C. Ribié[64][c]
- Manon Lescaut et le chevalier Desgrieux (1820), a melodrama by Étienne Gosse[69]
- Manon Lescaut (1830), a ballet by Jean-Louis Aumer
- Manon Lescaut (1851), a drama by Théodore Barrière and Marc Fournier[70]
- Manon Lescaut (1856), an opera by French composer Daniel Auber
- Manon (1884), an opera by French composer Jules Massenet
- Manon Lescaut (1893), opera by Puccini
- Manon Lescaut (1940), a drama in verse by Czech poet Vítězslav Nezval
- Boulevard Solitude (1952) "Lyrisches Drama" (lyric drama) or opera by German composer Hans Werner Henze
- Manon (1974), a ballet with music by Jules Massenet and choreography by Kenneth MacMillan
- Manon (2015), a musical written for the Takarazuka troupe by librettist/director Keiko Ueda and composer Joy Son
Films
[edit]- Manon Lescaut (1926), directed by Arthur Robison, with Lya de Putti
- When a Man Loves (1927), directed by Alan Crosland, with John Barrymore and Dolores Costello
- Manon Lescaut (1940), directed by Carmine Gallone, with Vittorio de Sica and Alida Valli
- Manon (1949), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot,[51] with Michel Auclair and Cécile Aubry
- The Lovers of Manon Lescaut (1954), directed by Mario Costa
- Manon 70 (1968), directed by Jean Aurel,[51] with Catherine Deneuve and Sami Frey
- Manón (1986), Venezuelan movie directed by Román Chalbaud, with Mayra Alejandra
- Manon Lescaut (2013), directed by Gabriel Aghion,[51] with Céline Perreau and Samuel Theis
- 3 x Manon (2014) and Manon 20 ans (2017), television miniseries by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade[51]
Translations
[edit]English translations of the original 1731 version of the novel include Helen Waddell's (1931). For the 1753 revision there are translations by, among others, L. W. Tancock (Penguin, 1949—though he divides the 2-part novel into a number of chapters), Donald M. Frame (Signet, 1961—which notes differences between the 1731 and 1753 editions), Angela Scholar (Oxford, 2004, with extensive notes and commentary), and Andrew Brown (Hesperus, 2004, with a foreword by Germaine Greer).
Henri Valienne (1854–1908), a physician and author of the first novel in the constructed language Esperanto, translated Manon Lescaut into that language. His translation was published at Paris in 1908, and reissued by the British Esperanto Association in 1926.
Notes
[edit]- ^ The passage being illustrated reads: "She showed him her mirror: See, sir, she said to him; look at yourself well, and do me justice. You ask me for love. Here is the man I love, and whom I have sworn to love all my life. Make the comparison yourself." (French: Elle lui préſenta ſon miroir: Voyez, Monſieur, lui dit-elle; regardez-vous bien, & rendez-moi juſtice. Vous me demandez de l'amour. Voici l'homme que j'aime, & que j'ai juré d'aimer toute ma vie. Faites la comparaiſon vous-même.)[27]
- ^ According to the Journal de la Cour et de Paris, the book was seized because "Besides the fact that people are made to play roles that are unworthy of them, vice and excess are depicted in ways that do not give enough horror." (French: Outre que l'on y faitjouer agens en place des roles peu dignes d'eux, le vice et le debordement y sont peints avec des traits qui n'en donnent pas assez d'horreur.)[58]
- ^ This play was first published in London and Paris in 1772, and reprinted with the title Manon Lescaut ou la courtisane vertuesuse in 1774, but not performed until 1782.[64]
Citations
[edit]- ^ Sgard 1991, p. xxiii.
- ^ a b Sgard 1991, p. vii.
- ^ Sgard 1991, p. vii-viii.
- ^ Sgard 1991, p. viii.
- ^ Prévost 1731, p. 1.
- ^ Prévost 1731, p. 2-8.
- ^ Prévost 1731, p. 9-21.
- ^ Johnson 2002, p. 169.
- ^ Prévost 1753, title page.
- ^ Prévost 1731, p.9.
- ^ a b c d Scholar 2004, p. xxxi.
- ^ Ross 1983, p. 200.
- ^ Scholar 2004, p. xxxiii.
- ^ Sgard 1991, p. xvi-xvii.
- ^ a b c Donaldson-Evans 2010, p. 58.
- ^ Segal 1986, p. xii.
- ^ a b Ross 1983, p. 205.
- ^ a b Johnson 2002, p. 170.
- ^ Sgard 1991, p. ix.
- ^ a b Mason 1982, p. 95, 97.
- ^ Mason 1982, p. 98-9.
- ^ Sgard 1991, p. x-xi.
- ^ a b c Sgard 1991, p. xi.
- ^ Mason 1982, p. 100-101.
- ^ Gasster 1985, p. 102.
- ^ Sgard 1991, p. xii.
- ^ Prévost 1753, p. 20.
- ^ Mason 1982, p. 93, 96.
- ^ Gelfand & Switten 1988, p. 448.
- ^ a b c Donaldson-Evans 2010, p. 57.
- ^ a b Sgard 1991, p. xiv-xv.
- ^ Gasster 1985, p. 103.
- ^ a b c Mason 1982, p. 94-5.
- ^ Gasster 1985, p. 104.
- ^ a b Mason 1982, p. 93.
- ^ Sgard 1991, p. xii-xiii.
- ^ Mason 1982, p. 92-3.
- ^ a b c Sgard 1991, p. xiii.
- ^ Wyngaard 2019, p. 459.
- ^ Wyngaard 2019, p. 460.
- ^ a b Wyngaard 2019, p. 461.
- ^ a b c Segal 1986, p. xviii.
- ^ Segal 1986, p. xvii-xviii.
- ^ Wyngaard 2019, p. 463.
- ^ a b Wyngaard 2019, p. 466.
- ^ a b c d e f Scholar 2004, p. xxix.
- ^ Segal 1986, p. xxii.
- ^ a b c d Wyngaard 2019, p. 465.
- ^ Segal 1986, p. xxv.
- ^ Gelfand & Switten 1988, p. 451.
- ^ a b c d e Wyngaard 2019, p. 467.
- ^ Wyngaard 2019, p. 467-9.
- ^ Johnson 2002, pp. 170–1.
- ^ Johnson 2002, pp. 171–2.
- ^ Johnson 2002, pp. 186.
- ^ a b c d Sgard 1991, p. xxx.
- ^ Mason 1982, p. 98.
- ^ a b c d Mason 1982, p. 99.
- ^ Sgard 1991, p. xxx-xxxi.
- ^ a b c Sgard 1991, p. xxxi.
- ^ Segal 1986, p. xvii.
- ^ a b c d Sgard 1995, p. 185.
- ^ a b c Sgard 1995, p. 187.
- ^ a b c d e Sgard 1995, p. 178.
- ^ Sgard 1995, p. 177-8.
- ^ Sgard 1995, p. 177.
- ^ a b Sgard 1995, p. 186.
- ^ Sgard 1995, p. 185: "The action is based less on a progressive decline than on an indiscretion of the lovers, followed by a terrible punishment, out of proportion to the fault." (French: L'action repose moins sur une déchéance progressive que sur une imprudence des amants, suive d'un châtiment terrible, sans proportion avec la faute.)
- ^ Sgard 1995, p. 180.
- ^ Sgard 1995, p. 191.
Bibliography
[edit]- Donaldson-Evans, Lance K. (2010). One Hundred Great French Books: From the Middle Ages to the Present. New York, NY: BlueBridge. ISBN 978-1-933346-22-9.
- Gasster, Susan (1985). "The Practical Side of Manon Lescaut". Modern Language Studies. 15 (4): 102–109. doi:10.2307/3194653. ISSN 0047-7729.
- Gelfand, Elissa; Switten, Margaret (1988). "Gender and the Rise of the Novel". The French Review. 61 (3): 443–453. ISSN 0016-111X.
- Johnson, Joe (2002). "Philosophical Reflection, Happiness, and Male Friendship in Prévost's Manon Lescaut". Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture. 31 (1): 169–190. doi:10.1353/sec.2010.0009. ISSN 1938-6133.
- Mason, Haydn (1982). "Money and the Establishment: Prévost (1697–1763)". French Writers and their Society 1715–1800. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 90–104. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-04660-7_6. ISBN 978-1-349-04662-1.
- Prévost, Antoine François (1753). Histoire du chevalier Des Grieux, et de Manon Lescaut – via Gallica.
- Prévost, Antoine François (1731). Mémoires et avantures d'un homme de qualité, qui s'est retiré du monde – via Gallica.
- Ross, Kristin (1983). "The Narrative of Fascination: Pathos and Repetition in "Manon Lescaut"". The Eighteenth Century. 24 (3): 199–210. ISSN 0193-5380.
- Scholar, Angela, ed. (2004). "Introduction". The Story of the Chevalier Des Grieux and Manon Lescaut (Oxford World's Classics ed.). Oxford : New York : Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-284065-3.
- Segal, Naomi (1986). The Unintended Reader: Feminism and Manon Lescaut. Cambridge UP.
- Sgard, Jean, ed. (1991). "Introduction". Manon Lescaut. Penguin Books.
- Sgard, Jean (1995). Vingt études sur Prévost d'Exiles (in French). ELLUG. ISBN 978-2-902709-96-0.
- Wyngaard, Amy S. (2019). "Femme Fatale or Feminist Heroine? Interpreting Manon Lescaut". Romance Notes. 59 (3): 459–470. ISSN 0035-7995.
Further reading
[edit]- (in French) Sylviane Albertan-Coppola, Abbé Prévost : Manon Lescaut, Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1995 ISBN 978-2-13-046704-5.
- (in French) André Billy, L'Abbé Prévost, Paris: Flammarion, 1969.
- (in French) René Démoris, Le Silence de Manon, Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1995 ISBN 978-2-13-046826-4.
- Patrick Brady, Structuralist perspectives in criticism of fiction : essays on Manon Lescaut and La Vie de Marianne, P. Lang, Berne ; Las Vegas, 1978.
- Patrick Coleman, Reparative realism : mourning and modernity in the French novel, 1730–1830, Geneva: Droz, 1998 ISBN 978-2-600-00286-8.
- (in French) Maurice Daumas, Le Syndrome des Grieux : la relation père/fils au XVIIIe siècle, Paris: Seuil, 1990 ISBN 978-2-02-011397-7.
- R. A. Francis, The abbé Prévost's first-person narrators, Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1993.
- (in French) Eugène Lasserre, Manon Lescaut de l'abbé Prévost, Paris: Société Française d'Éditions Littéraires et Techniques, 1930.
- (in French) Paul Hazard, Études critiques sur Manon Lescaut, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1929.
- (in French) Pierre Heinrich, L'Abbé Prévost et la Louisiane ; étude sur la valeur historique de Manon Lescaut Paris: E. Guilmoto, 1907.
- (in French) Claudine Hunting, La Femme devant le "tribunal masculin" dans trois romans des Lumières : Challe, Prévost, Cazotte, New York: P. Lang, 1987 ISBN 978-0-8204-0361-8.
- (in French) Jean Luc Jaccard, Manon Lescaut, le personnage-romancier, Paris: A.-G. Nizet, 1975 ISBN 2-7078-0450-9.
- (in French) Eugène Lasserre, Manon Lescaut de l'abbé Prévost, Paris: Société française d'Éditions littéraires et techniques, 1930.
- (in French) Roger Laufer, Style rococo, style des Lumières, Paris: J. Corti, 1963.
- (in French) Vivienne Mylne, Prévost : Manon Lescaut, London: Edward Arnold, 1972.
- (in French) René Picard, Introduction à l'Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut, Paris: Garnier, 1965, pp. cxxx–cxxxxvii.
- Naomi Segal, The Unintended Reader : feminism and Manon Lescaut, Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986 ISBN 978-0-521-30723-9.
- (in French) Alan Singerman, L'Abbé Prévost : L'amour et la morale, Geneva: Droz, 1987.
- (in French) Jean Sgard, L'Abbé Prévost : labyrinthes de la mémoire, Paris: PUF, 1986 ISBN 2-13-039282-2.
- (in French) Jean Sgard, Prévost romancier, Paris: José Corti, 1968 ISBN 2-7143-0315-3.
- (in French) Loïc Thommeret, La Mémoire créatrice. Essai sur l'écriture de soi au XVIIIe siècle, Paris: L'Harmattan, 2006, ISBN 978-2-296-00826-7.
- Arnold L. Weinstein, Fictions of the self, 1550–1800, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981 ISBN 978-0-691-06448-2.
External links
[edit]- Full texts at Project Gutenberg in the original French and in an English translation
Manon Lescaut public domain audiobook at LibriVox
- Manon Lescaut on World Wide School
- Images from an illustrated 1885 French edition
- (in French) Manon Lescaut, audio version