Manon Lescaut

‘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 18th-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?

Prévost is careful to leave the ambiguities unresolved, and to lay bare

the disorders of passion.