# Manon Lescaut

The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut (French: Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux, et de Manon Lescaut) is a novel by Antoine François Prévost. Most commonly referred to as simply Manon Lescaut, the novel is a tragic love story about a nobleman (known only as the Chevalier des Grieux) and a common woman (Manon Lescaut). Defying conventional morality, they run away together and commit an escalating series of crimes to fund a lifestyle of pleasure. The narrative is presented as a long speech by des Grieux nine months after Manon's death, and is often interrupted by his retrospective emotions. The novel is regarded as a classic, and is the most reprinted novel in French literature, with over 250 editions.
The story was first published in 1731 in Amsterdam as the seventh and final volume of Prévost's serial novel Memoirs and Adventures of a Man of Quality (French: Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité). In 1733, all copies for sale in Paris were seized due to the volume's morally questionable content. This effective ban contributed to an increase in popularity, and several unauthorized reprints of Manon Lescaut without the rest of the Memoirs and Adventures. In 1753, Prévost published a revised version of the standalone Manon Lescaut, which is now the most commonly reprinted version.
On the novel's first publication, the characters' choices were seen as shockingly immoral: their decision to live together without marriage is the start of a moral decline that also leads to gambling, fraud, theft, and murder. The novel was unusual for depicting Paris's "low life" and for discussing the lovers' money problems in numerical detail: both choices contribute to its realism and its aura of scandal.
The story is remembered for its tragic lovers, with des Grieux and Manon often compared to Romeo and Juliet or Tristan and Iseult. Over the centuries, audiences have judged Manon's morals and personality differently. Eighteenth-century audiences saw her as an unworthy figure who nonetheless inspired affection and pity due to the sincerity of her love for des Grieux. Nineteenth-century responses saw her as a nearly mythological temptress, either a femme fatale who corrupts des Grieux or a hooker with a heart of gold who is redeemed through her death. More recent scholarly analyses tend to see Manon as a victim of broader social forces, who is misunderstood and misrepresented by des Grieux's narration of her experience.
Manon Lescaut has had dozens of adaptations into plays, ballets, operas, and films. The most renowned stage adaptations are three operas: Daniel Auber's Manon Lescaut (1856), Jules Massenet's Manon (1884), and Giacomo Puccini's Manon Lescaut (1893). Manon Lescaut also heavily inspired Giuseppe Verdi's opera La traviata (1853), through its influence on the play and novel La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils. Notable film adaptations include the Hollywood silent film When a Man Loves (1927) and Manon 70 (1968), starring Catherine Deneuve as Manon.

## Plot summary

The seventeen-year-old Chevalier des Grieux, 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 pursue a richer man for money because she cannot stand living in penury.
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

Prévost likely composed Manon Lescaut in March and April 1731. At the time, he was in Amsterdam, and was writing quickly to satisfy his contract with the Compagnie des Libraires d'Amsterdam. The story was first published as volume VII of his successful novel Memoirs and Adventures of a Man of Quality, Who Withdrew from the World (French: Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité, qui s'est retiré du monde), and was released with volumes V and VI in May 1731.
The narrative of Manon Lescaut is set apart from the main events of Memoirs and Adventures, with a preface and a preamble. The preface, titled "Note from the author" (French: Avis de l'Auteur), explains that the story was too large to include within the main narrative. It also says the story will be a morally-instructive example for readers, who will learn not to imitate des Grieux. The preamble is narrated by the unnamed "man of quality" (French: homme de qualité) who is the protagonist of the main novel. 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.
A substantially revised edition appeared as a standalone publication in 1753. The standalone volume was titled The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and of Manon Lescaut (French: Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut), which was the subtitle of volume VII of Memoirs and Adventures. 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. In this edition, Prévost modified some of his most sensationalist language, added a new scene where Manon resists the seduction of an Italian prince, and rewrote the ending to replace des Grieux's religious conversion with a more secular morality. The 1753 edition also added eight illustrations and an allegorical vignette on the first page.

## Style

The story is narrated as a long speech to the protagonist of Prévost's Memoirs and Adventures, delivered by des Grieux nine months after Manon's death. As such, it is an early example of the French genre of the confessional récit. All events are recounted in the first person, and shaped by des Grieux's retrospective self-justifications. The novel does not use quotation marks, even when des Grieux relates what other characters have said. This blurs the boundaries between characters' speech and free indirect speech. Des Grieux's telling frequently interrupts the narrative with apostrophes to absent figures and expressions of intense emotion. When he describes Manon, he often stutters or struggles to find words.

## Major themes
### Tragic love

The story is particularly remembered for its tragic lovers, with des Grieux and Manon being compared to Romeo and Juliet and Tristan and Iseult. 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". Although the book depicts its protagonists as suffering due to their poverty, it is not a populist novel that advocates for social reform. Instead, the novel responds to their struggles with sadness and resignation. 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.

### Scandalizing immorality

On the novel's first publication, the characters and their choices were seen as shockingly immoral. 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. Manon's willingness to have sex for money, and her general taste for pleasure and luxury, also seemed irreconcilable with her narrative role as a sympathetic love object. Both were sometimes seen as corrupted characters, and the novel's realistic depiction of Paris's "low life" was unusual and potentially threatening. Although the preface claims to disavow the characters' misbehavior, this is usually seen as an insincere pretense. 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 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.

### Social rank and money

The novel is unusual in the French tradition for its detailed depiction of lower-class locations and activities, especially the criminal world. Manon is considered "the first commoner heroine in French fiction", and the gulf in social rank between her and the noble des Grieux is an obstacle to their love. Des Grieux and Manon sometimes struggle to understand each other due to their different backgrounds. 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. Their difference in rank is also apparent in the different punishments they receive for their transgressions. 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. Des Grieux often assumes—correctly—that even complete strangers will be willing to help him, if they share his aristocratic background. The novel thus highlights how justice is enforced unequally for different ranks of society.
A distinct, and even greater challenge is their lack of money. 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. The literary scholar Haydn Mason describes the novel's setting as "a harsh and sordid world, motivated almost universally by money." Manon Lescaut is often highlighted as the first French novel to treat money as a major theme. Exact numbers are provided throughout the novel, an unusual choice which contributes to the novel's realism. 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. 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. 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.

### The character of Manon

Since the novel's first publication, substantial critical analysis has focused on the interpretation of Manon's character. Because Manon's words and actions are always related through the filter of des Grieux's retrospective storytelling, readers can speculate about her real thoughts, feelings, and intentions.
The earliest reviews in 1733 saw Manon as sympathetic but unexpectedly so, an unworthy "whore" (French: catin) who was nonetheless appealing due to the sincerity of her love for des Grieux. She was both blamed and forgiven for des Grieux's corruption. The 1753 illustrations reinforced the image of Manon as someone to be loved, pitied, and forgiven for her mistakes. Eighteenth-century readers also saw Manon and des Grieux as helpless, fated to a tragic ending. The crimes of both were equally justified by their love and their financial need.
Manon's reputation began to change in the nineteenth century, as she became a near-mythological figure. Rather than being a simple, lighthearted girl of common birth, she was depicted as either a femme fatale who destroys des Grieux, or as a hooker with a heart of gold who is redeemed through her death. Adaptations like the popular opera Manon (1884) characterized Manon as powerfully seductive. 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." 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".
Twentieth-century scholarly interpretations tended to see Manon as the victim, not of her own weakness, but of various social systems. For these readers, des Grieux's version of events is considered suspect, and it is important to imagine how Manon might have narrated her story differently. Feminist theorists like Nancy K. Miller and Segal see Manon as a narrative victim of patriarchy. 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. Outside of academia, modern readers sometimes find Manon underdeveloped as a character. Twenty-first century adaptations reinforced a sociological interpretation of Manon's character. Several adaptations translate the story to more recent time periods in French history, in which Manon is always a non-conformist who boldly pursues love despite disadvantaged circumstances.

## Reception

Manon Lescaut gained popularity gradually. When first published in 1731 as part of Memoirs and Adventures, it was not discussed separately from the rest of the novel. Over the next few years, it was increasingly seen as a highlight of that novel. Reviewers universally praised the novel, especially for its success inducing tears. Memoirs and Adventures 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.
In July 1733, the release of a new edition in Paris prompted a review in the clandestine Journal de la Cour et de Paris, which brought it to the attention of many new readers, including the famous author Voltaire. 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. This effective ban led to a sudden increase in popularity. As part of this new popularity, Manon Lescaut was printed separately from Memoirs and Adventures several times in 1733 and 1734, though these were unauthorized reprints. In 1753, Prévost responded with a high-quality revised edition of Manon Lescaut as a self-contained novel. Both Memoirs and Adventures 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.
Interest in the novel waned at the start of the nineteenth century, followed by another dramatic increase in popularity in 1830, when it was adapted as a ballet. Many further adaptations followed, with new reprints of Manon Lescaut each year. 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. Over time, the novel came to be regarded as a historical classic. It became the most reprinted novel in French literature, with over 250 editions published between 1731 and 1981.

## Adaptations
### Stage adaptations

The first theatrical adaptation of Manon Lescaut was in 1772. This was a comedy titled The Virtuous Courtesan (French: La Courtisane vertueuse), which ends with Manon surviving. It attempted to mix a sensitive and emotional portrayal of the lovers with some humour, but reviewers found it far inferior to the novel. There were a few dramas in the eighteenth century and the Romantic period, followed by a larger number in the early twentieth century. Relatively few of the early theatrical adaptations of Manon Lescaut have survived. Although ballets and operas of Manon Lescaut became popular, only three theatrical dramas had even a modest success: The Virtuous Courtesan (1772), Manon Lescaut et le chevalier Desgrieux (1820), and Manon Lescaut (1851). All three include some incidental music, and the 1820 melodrama is also accompanied by a ballet. These adaptations dramatize the narrative in similar ways. 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.
Operatic adaptations of the novel are, in the words of the literary historian Jean Sgard, "both numerous and late" (French: "la fois nombreuse et tardive"). Sgard argues that operatic adaptations came late in the legacy of the novel because the story's mixture of genres was incompatible with the dominant genre of serious opera characterized by Handel and Rameau. The first operatic adaptation, in 1836, was not a success. An important change in operatic precedent came after Giuseppe Verdi's highly successful 1853 opera, La traviata ("The Fallen Woman"). La traviata is based on the play and novel The Lady of the Camellias (French: La Dame aux Camélias) by Alexandre Dumas fils, which are themselves heavily inspired by Manon Lescaut. After 1853, six operas based on Manon Lescaut were produced. These operas varied widely in how they adapted the story: it was divided into differing numbers of sections (from three to seven acts), and adaptations existed in the different operatic genres of comic opera, opera, and lyric drama. The most renowned adaptations of Manon Lescaut are the operas by Daniel Auber (1856), Jules Massenet (1884), and Giacomo Puccini (1893).
In the theatrical and operatic adaptations, Manon's three lovers are combined into just one. Theatrical adaptations simplify the plot to one instance of infidelity, a reconciliation, and then the final tragedy, and operatic adaptations forgo the novel's long decline to dramatically juxtapose young love and tragic death. The literary scholar Jean Sgard argues that, by reducing the complexity of the narrative, the theatrical adaptations present the lovers as being disproportionately punished for a single mistake, rather than capturing the novel's feeling of a gradual descent into immorality. He further argues that operatic adaptations are forced to focus on a one-note characterization of Manon, and each opera's evaluation of her moral character is expressed in its depiction of her death.

#### List of dramas, operas and ballets

* The Virtuous Courtesan (French: La Courtisane vertueuse) (1772), a theatrical comedy by Brenner à C. Ribié
* Manon Lescaut et le chevalier Desgrieux (1820), a melodrama by Étienne Gosse
* Manon Lescaut (1830), a ballet by Jean-Louis Aumer
* Manon Lescaut, or the Maid of Artois (1836), an opera by the Irish composer Michael-William Balfe
* Manon Lescaut (1846), a ballet by Giovanni Casati
* Manon Lescaut (1851), a drama by Théodore Barrière and Marc Fournier
* Manon Lescaut (1852), a ballet by Giovanni Colinelli
* Manon Lescaut (1856), an opera by French composer Daniel Auber
* Manon (1884), an opera by French composer Jules Massenet
* Manon Lescaut, or the Castle of Lorme (German: Manon Lescaut oder Schloss de Lorme) (1887), an opera by Richard Kleinmichel
* Manon Lescaut (1893), an opera by the Italian composer Giacomo Puccini
* Manon Lescaut (1940), a drama in verse by Czech poet Vítězslav Nezval
* Boulevard Solitude (1952), an 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

### Film adaptations

Manon Lescaut was adapted several times after the invention of film. These include a series of silent films, the most prominent of which is the 1927 Hollywood adaptation titled When a Man Loves. Early adaptations were period films, set in the early eighteenth century; later film adaptations translate the novel's story to a contemporary setting. The 1949 film Manon by Henri-Georges Clouzot depicts des Grieux as a member of the French Resistance and Manon as a Nazi collaborator; he and Manon enter the black market and eventually stowaway to Palestine with a group of Jewish refugees. In Manon 70 by Jean Aurel, released in 1968 and set in the near-future of 1970, des Grieux is a globetrotting radio journalist who tags along with Manon's sugar baby lifestyle; instead of ending with Manon's tragic death, this film concludes with both Manon and des Grieux hitchhiking. A pair of television miniseries directed by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade in 2014 and 2017 presents Manon as a contemporary young woman in a youth detention center who is failed by social systems and lives precariously.

#### List of films

* Manon Lescaut (1908), Italian silent film directed by Carlo Rossi
* Manon Lescaut (1914), American silent film directed by H.H. Winslow
* Manon Lescaut (1926), German silent film directed by Arthur Robison, with Lya de Putti and Marlene Dietrich
* When a Man Loves (1927), American silent film directed by Alan Crosland, with John Barrymore and Dolores Costello
* Manon Lescaut (1940), Italian, directed by Carmine Gallone, with Vittorio de Sica and Alida Valli
* Manon (1949), French, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, with Michel Auclair and Cécile Aubry
* The Lovers of Manon Lescaut (1954), French, directed by Mario Costa
* Manon 70 (1968), French, directed by Jean Aurel, with Catherine Deneuve and Sami Frey
* Manon (1981), Japanese, directed by Yōichi Higashi
* Manón (1986), Venezuelan, directed by Román Chalbaud, with Mayra Alejandra
* Manon Lescaut (2013), French television film, directed by Gabriel Aghion, with Céline Perreau and Samuel Theis
* 3 x Manon (2014) and Manon, 20 years old (French: Manon 20 ans) (2017), French television miniseries by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade

## Translations

The 1753 version of the novel is more common in modern editions. English translations of the original 1731 version of the novel include Helen Waddell's 1931 translation with a foreword by George Saintsbury. For the 1753 revision there are translations by, among others, L. W. Tancock (Penguin, 1949—which 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 in Paris in 1908, and reissued by the British Esperanto Association in 1926.