Manon Lescaut (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Prevost, Abbe

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140445595 ISBN 13: 9780140445596

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1991

Synopsis

When the young Chevalier des Grieux first sets eyes on the exquisitely beautiful and charming Manon Lescaut they fall passionately in love. But his happiness turns to bitter despair when he discovers that Manon is mercenary and immoral, and has taken a rich lover to pay for their life of pleasure. A broken man, he swears to stay away from her, but cannot. Just as the Chevalier is helpless to end their relationship, so Manon is incapable of giving up the source of her income, and the lovers enter a destructive cycle that can only end in tragedy. Manon Lescaut (1731) is a devastating depiction of obsessive love and a haunting portrait of a captivating but dangerous woman.

About this title

Review:

Manon is the perfidious object of the Chevalier des Grieux's affections. She betrays him; his love for her threatens his every moral tenet, yet he clings to a belief in the redemptive power of love. Manon Lescaut is both operatic high tragedy and picaresque adventure. As Larkin's introduction emphasises, the ambiguity of the Jesuitical Des Grieux means that this love is far from innocent, and an enduring puzzle. --Isobel Montgomery in The Guardian

The tragic love story Manon Lescaut has been the model for operas (by Puccini, Massenet and Henze) and films for years. This French classic by Abbe Prevost, retranslated for the first time in 52 years by Steve Larkin, shows remarkable resiliency more than 200 years after its original publication. Set in Paris and Louisiana around 1720, it is the archetypal 18th - century romance, with the noble des Grieux as devoted lover and the worldly Manon as inconstant mistress." --Publishers Weekly

About the Author:

Antoine-Francois Prevost was born in 1697. Educated by the Jesuits, he entered the army, later returning to the Jesuits, before becoming a Benedictine monk with the congregation of Saint-Maur. However, his taste for the wordly life led him to flee the cloister in 1728 after which he spent the next six years in exile in Holland. He began writing in 1728 and Mamon Lescaut casued a sensation on its publication in 1731. He died in 1763.

Leonard Tancock was a Fellow of University College, London until his death in 1986. He translated many works from French for the Penguin Classics.
Jean Sgard is a Professor of French Literature at the Stendhal University in Grenoble.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0140445595
• ISBN 13: 9780140445596
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 161
• Editor: Sgard Jean