Manon Lescaut
(L'Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut
) is a short novel by French author Antoine François Prévost (the Abbé 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). It was controversial in its time and 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.
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Plot summary
Set in
France and
Louisiana in the early 18th century, the story follows the hero le Chevalier Des Grieux and his lover Manon Lescaut. Des Grieux comes from a noble and landed family, but forfeits his hereditary wealth and incurs the disappointment of his father by running away with Manon. In
Paris, the young lovers enjoy a blissful cohabitation, while Des Grieux struggles to satisfy Manon's taste for luxury. He scrounges together money by borrowing from his unwaveringly loyal friend Tiberge and from cheating gamblers. On several occasions, Des Grieux's wealth evaporates (by theft, in a house fire, etc.), prompting Manon to leave him for a richer man because she cannot stand the thought of living in penury.
The two lovers finally settle down in
New Orleans, where the virtual absence of class differences allows them to live in idyllic peace for a while. But when Des Grieux reveals their unmarried state to the Governor and asks to be wed with Manon, the Governor's nephew sets his sights on winning Manon's hand. In despair, Des Grieux challenges the Governor's nephew to a duel and knocks him unconscious. Thinking he had killed the man and fearing retribution, the couple flee New Orleans and venture into the wilderness of Louisiana, hoping to reach a neighboring English settlement. Manon dies of exposure and exhaustion the following morning, and Des Grieux returns to France to become a cleric after burying his beloved.
Operas and Ballets
The story has influenced a number of ballets and operas, such as
Manon Lescaut
(1856) by French composer
Daniel-François-Esprit Auber,
Manon
(1884) by French composer
Jules Massenet,
Manon Lescaut
(1893) by
Italian composer
Giacomo Puccini,
Boulevard Solitude
by
German composer
Hans Werner Henze, the ballet
L'histoire de Manon, and
Manon Lescaut
(1940) by
Czech poet and playwright
Vítezslav Nezval.
Films
Some films and TV series have been based on the novel. The most prominent are:
- When a Man Loves
(1927), directed by Alan Crosland, with John Barrymore and Dolores Costello
- Lady of the Tropics
(1939), directed by Jack Conway, with Hedy Lamarr and Robert Taylor
- Manon Lescaut
(1940), directed by Carmine Gallone, with Vittorio de Sica and Alida Valli
- Manon
(1949), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, with Michel Auclair and Cécile Aubry.
Works which cite Manon Lescaut
In the mystery novel
Clouds of Witness
by
Dorothy Sayers,
Lord Peter Wimsey solves the case by reference to
Manon Lescaut
.
In the novel
La Dame aux Camelias
(
Lady of the Camelias
) by
Alexandre Dumas, fils,
Manon Lescaut
is an all-important model and point of comparison for Marguerite's life, loves and death and is extensively discussed. In the opening pages, the narrator encounters a copy of
Manon Lescaut
in the auction of Marguerite Gautier's estate, and buys it. The narrator reflects that while Marguerite died in a "sumptuous bed" and Manon died in the desert, in her lovers arms, Marguerite's death was nevertheless worse, for she died "in that desert of the heart, a more barren, a vaster, a more pitiless desert than that in which Manon had found her last resting-place." The narrator learns this copy of
Manon Lescaut
was a gift from Armand to Marguerite. Armand tells him that Marguerite read the story of Manon Lescaut "over and over again" making notes in the margins, and she "always declared that when a woman loves, she can not do as
Manon did." (But of course, she does, because she must, hence the tragedy).
In Act I of
Alexandre Dumas, fils's play
The Lady of the Camellias
, the characters attend a performance of the ballet
Manon Lescaut
.
Yoshimi Iwasaki's (????) 1980 hit song
Anata iro no Manon
(????????) is about
Manon Lescaut
In chapter 4 of
Oscar Wilde's novel
The Picture of Dorian Gray
, Dorian leafs through a copy of
Manon Lescaut
while waiting for Lord Henry.
In
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's
Venus im Pelz (
Venus in Furs), the masochistic hero Severin refers approvingly to the Chevalier's love for Manon even after she has left him for another man.
Manon Lescaut is mention in the novel written by an important Romanian writer,
Mihail Drumes.
In the novel, called "
Invitatie la vals", referring to
Carl Maria von Weber's "
Invitation to the Dance" (later orchestrated by
Berlioz), Manon Lescaut is mentioned, as in a comparation of the main character of the Romanian novel (and the situations described in it) with Manon Lescaut.
It is also mentioned at the very end of
Michel Foucault's "Life of infamous men".
Thomas Pynchon refers to Des Grieux a number of times in his early short-story "Under the Rose," found in his
Slow Learner collection.
Manon is also referenced in the films
Manon des Sources (1953 by Marcel Pagnol
and 1986 by Claude Berri) and
Jean de Florette
(entitled Ugolin in 1953 by Marcel Pagnol and 1986 by Claude Berri).
Pagnol's 1962-1964 novels were derived from his movie.
Beyond the name of the heroine, her
grandmother was referenced as having sung Manon.
References