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Manon Lescaut
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Wikipedia article
'The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut' ( ) is a novel by Antoine Franois Prvost. Published in 1731, it is the seventh and final volume of 'Mmoires et aventures d'un homme de qualit' ('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 Abb Prvost 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.
Plot summary
, 1878
Seventeen-year-old Des Grieux, studying philosophy at Amiens, comes from a noble and landed family, but forfeits his hereditary wealth and incurs the disappointment of his father by running away with Manon on her way to a convent. In Paris, the young lovers enjoy a blissful cohabitation, while Des Grieux struggles to satisfy Manon's taste for luxury. He acquires money by borrowing from his unwaveringly loyal friend Tiberge and by 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 end up in New Orleans, to which Manon has been deported as a prostitute, where they pretend to be married and live in idyllic peace for a while. But when Des Grieux reveals their unmarried state to the Governor, tienne 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 had killed the man and fearing retribution, the couple flee New Orleans and venture into the wilderness of Louisiana, hoping to reach an English settlement. Manon dies of exposure and exhaustion the following morning and, after burying his beloved, Des Grieux is eventually taken back to France by Tiberge.
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Adaptations
Dramas, operas and ballets
*'Manon Lescaut' (1830), a ballet by Jean-Louis Aumer*'Manon Lescaut' (1856), an opera by French composer Daniel Auber
*'Manon' (1884), an opera by French composer Jules Massenet
*'Manon Lescaut' (1893), an opera by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini
*'Manon Lescaut' (1940), a drama in verse by Czech poet Vtzslav Nezval
*'Boulevard Solitude' (1952) "Lyrisches Drama" (lyric drama) or opera by German composer Hans Werner Henze
*'Manon' (first performed in 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
*'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, with Michel Auclair and Ccile Aubry
* 'The Lovers of Manon Lescaut' (1954), directed by Mario Costa
*'Manon 70' (1968), directed by Jean Aurel, with Catherine Deneuve and Sami Frey
*Mann (1986), Venezuelan movie directed by Romn Chalbaud, with Mayra Alejandra
*'Manon Lescaut' (2013), directed by Gabriel Aghion, with Cline Perreau and Samuel Theis
Translations
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, 1949though he divides the 2-part novel into a number of chapters), Donald M. Frame (Signet, 1961which 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 (18541908), 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.
Uses
Dorothy L. Sayers used the novel's plot for her 1926 novel, Clouds of Witness, which was filmed and became episode 1 of the Lord Peter Wimsey (TV series) television series.
Citations
Additional references
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* Kunitz, Stanley J. & Colby, Vineta (1967). Franois Prvost, Antoine in 'European Authors 10001900', pp. 74344. H.W. Wilson Company, New York.
Bibliography
* Sylviane Albertan-Coppola, 'Abb Prvost : Manon Lescaut', Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1995 .
* Andr Billy, 'L'Abb Prvost', Paris: Flammarion, 1969.
* Ren Dmoris, 'Le Silence de Manon', Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1995 .
* 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, 17301830', Geneva: Droz, 1998 .
* Maurice Daumas, 'Le Syndrome des Grieux : la relation pre/fils au XVIIIe sicle', Paris: Seuil, 1990 .
* R. A. Francis, 'The abb Prvost's first-person narrators', Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1993.
* Eugne Lasserre, 'Manon Lescaut de l'abb Prvost', Paris: Socit Franaise d'ditions Littraires et Techniques, 1930.
* Paul Hazard, 'tudes critiques sur Manon Lescaut', Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1929.
* Pierre Heinrich, 'L'Abb Prvost et la Louisiane ; tude sur la valeur historique de Manon Lescaut' Paris: E. Guilmoto, 1907.
* Claudine Hunting, 'La Femme devant le "tribunal masculin" dans trois romans des Lumires : Challe, Prvost, Cazotte', New York: P. Lang, 1987 .
* Jean Luc Jaccard, 'Manon Lescaut, le personnage-romancier', Paris: A.-G. Nizet, 1975 .
* Eugne Lasserre, 'Manon Lescaut de l'abb Prvost', Paris: Socit franaise d'ditions littraires et techniques, 1930.
* Roger Laufer, 'Style rococo, style des Lumires', Paris: J. Corti, 1963.
* Vivienne Mylne, 'Prvost : Manon Lescaut', London: Edward Arnold, 1972.
* Ren Picard, 'Introduction l'Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut', Paris: Garnier, 1965, pp. cxxxcxxxxvii.
* Naomi Segal, 'The Unintended Reader : feminism and Manon Lescaut', Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986 .
* Alan Singerman, 'L'Abb Prvost : L'amour et la morale', Geneva: Droz, 1987.
* Jean Sgard, 'L'Abb Prvost : labyrinthes de la mmoire', Paris: PUF, 1986 .
* Jean Sgard, 'Prvost romancier', Paris: Jos Corti, 1968 .
* Loc Thommeret, 'La Mmoire cratrice. Essai sur l'criture de soi au XVIIIe sicle', Paris: L'Harmattan, 2006, .
* Arnold L. Weinstein, 'Fictions of the self, 15501800', Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981 .
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