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User:Foofy/Notes on Manon Lescaut

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Here are my notes on Manon Lescaut, they might be of use to anyone else working on the article. All items can be verified in the sources. I have not used the 1911 Britannica as a valid fact resource for the obvious reasons.

History

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  • POV: "One of the greatest novels of the 18th century, ground breaking?"
  • Very short (about 62,000 words).
  • Considered one of the first "modern novels"

"it is entirely free from improbable incident, it is penetrated by the truest and most cunningly managed feeling; and almost every one of its characters is a triumph of that analytic portraiture which is the secret of the modern novel."

  • Very popular in France, despite being banned as immoral. Was only available in pirated copy.
  • Separately published in Paris in 1731 as Les Aventures Du Chevalier Des Grieux Et De Manon Lescaut proposé par Monsieur D

Influence

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  • Hugely influential, inspired a number of operas and ballets.
  • "A tragic love story, it's also an epic adventure story with three infidelities, three escapes, three abductions and two murders."

The story was hugely influential and inspired a number of ballets and operas, most notably Manon (1884) by French composer Jules Massenet, and Manon Lescaut (1893) by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini.

Story and plot

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  • Set in France and Louisiana.
  • Cevalier des Grieux is the main character, is "worn to a shell by life and a bitter experience."
  • Reveals his story/troubles to a kind stranger who asks.
  • Tiberge, his friend/mentor and "reasonable man."
  • Lescaut, Manon's brother, an eccentric bully.
  • Manon, the hero (protagonist?) who genuinely loves des Grieux, but betrays him because of her love of money/comfort. Does not want to live a life of privation.
    • POV: "Manon is a remarkable hero. No literary ancestor, mostly original."
    • "Only Princesse de Clèves compares (from Madame de la Fayette's masterpiece."
    • Compelling character of Manon prefigures a host of nineteenth-century Romantic heroines.
  • Des Grieux finds joy in love and sexual relationship.
  • Also finds misery of betrayal and moral degradation.
  • Manon is "amiable" through her degradation (whatever that means).
  • Book shows such things as destructive and morally degrading.
  • Shows differences between aristocracy and poor?
  • Ambiguous ending.

References

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  • "Prévost (d'Exiles, Antoine François), Abbé". 2003. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |ency= ignored (help)
  • "Prévost d'Exiles, Antoine-François, Abbé". 2005. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |ency= ignored (help)
  • Brewer, E. Cobham (1898), Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Henry Altemus
  • Kunitz, Stanley J. & Colby, Vineta (1967). François Prévost, Antoine in European Authors 1000-1900, pp. 743-4. H.W. Wilson Company, New York.
  • Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainChisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)