Books by Abbe Prevost

This edition of "Manon Lescaut" incorporates an English introduction and footnotes. It assesses the persuasiveness of the self-justifying narrative which lies at the heart of the book, and on interpreting the motivation of the main characters whose tragic love-affair the novel charts.

An English translation of the Abbe Prevost's 1740 novel The Greek Girl's Story. Includes foreword by Jean Sgard, notes, and appendices.

Originally published in 1942, this book contains the French text of Abbe Prevost's 1731 novel Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut, which inspired the 1893 opera by Puccini. The original novel was considered so scandalous that Prevost was forced to amend the original manuscript; the text reproduced here is from the altered 1753 edition.

"The sweetness of her glance, or rather my evil star already in its ascendant and drawing me to my ruin, did not allow me to hesitate for a moment."So begins the story of Manon Lescaut, a tale of passion and betrayal, of delinquency and misalliance, which moves from early eighteenth-century Paris--with its theatres, assemblies, and gaming-houses-via prison and deportation to a tragic denouement in the treeless wastes of Louisiana. It is one of the great love stories, and also one of the most enigmatic: how reliable a witness is Des Grieux, Manon's lover, whose tale he narrates? Is Manon a thief and a whore, the image of love itself, or a thoroughly modern woman? Prevost is careful to leave the ambiguities unresolved, and to lay bare the disorders of passion.This new translation includes the vignette and eight illustrations that were approved by Prevost and first published in the edition of 1753.

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.