Manon Lescaut is a tale of absolutely uncontrollable passion for a
bewitchingly beautiful young woman who is 100% immoral. She is an
empty-headed minx, who doesn’t love anyone and who will do anything to
avoid poverty. When he is gripped by Manon's sensual charms, after
spotting her as a voluptuous siren chained in a gang of female inmates,
Des Grieux is only seventeen, a mere boy, Manon is even younger than
that, but she has already had a good measure of sexual experience as we
are told. Des Grieux is studying philosophy at Amiens and comes from a noble and landed family, but despite his breeding and good
taste he is unable to resist his sexual passion.
[First meeting of Manon and Des Grieux]
The love affair is an
unmitigated disaster for the family of Des Grieux: by eloping with Manon on her way to a convent, abandoning his family, his career and his principles, he forfeits 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 borrowing from his loyal friend Tiberge and by cheating gamblers. On several occasions, Des Grieux's wealth evaporates (by theft, etc.), prompting Manon to leave him for a richer man because she cannot stand the thought of living in penury. Manon
develops into a demanding sybarite and liar, and pulls Des Grieux down into a
life of crime and deceit, even taking a rich older lover to pay the
bills of the young couple.
The events which follow lead eventually to
imprisonment, murder, and the journey of the couple to the New World - Manon is deported to New Orleans as a prostitute, and Des Grieux follows her. In New Orleans they pretend to be married and live in idyllic peace for a while. But when Des Grieux reveals their unmarried state to the Governor and
asks to be wed with Manon, the Governor's nephew sets his sights on
winning Manon's hand. In despair, Des Grieux challenges the Governor's
nephew to a duel and knocks him unconscious. Believing he has killed the
man and fearing retribution, the couple flees New Orleans and venture
into the wilderness of Louisiana, hoping to reach an English settlement.
But the following morning, Manon dies of exposure and exhaustion. The novel ends with a melodramatic burial scene: Des Grieux
breaks his sword and digs Manon's grave in the sand; he takes off his
clothes to enshroud her body and then lies sprawling naked on the grave
in abject torment. Des Grieux is eventually taken back to France by
Tiberge.
[Burial of Manon by Des Grieux]
Des
Grieux’s passion for Manon never falters, as a fatal addiction, a sign
of his nobility of character. Manon, from her side, can neither resist
him nor return his love. She remains an elusive figure, addicted to
pleasure, satisfied at her conquest of a man of rank, but just as easily
leaving him again and again when circumstances make that necessary. But nothing she does or experiences leaves its mark on her, so she has been called "the virginal prostitute." The
taut story is a prime example of fast moving narration, pulling the
reader from calamity to escape to new calamity, and then on to the final
tragedy.
When Manon Lescaut appeared in 1731, it was considered so scandalous that the novel was banned, which led to an avalanche of pirated editions. Finally, in 1753 the author toned it down a bit so that it could be published in a normal way. The uptight 19th c. has been especially fond of this sexy 18th c. book: opera adaptations were made by Auber (1856), Massenet (1884) and Puccini (1893). But also Hans Werner Henze used the novel as material for an opera in 1952, and the Japanese all-female Takarazuka troupe based a musical on it in 2015. Since the 1920s, there have also been 7 film versions, such as the 1949 film by Henri-Georges Clouzot, with Michel Auclair and Cécile Aubry (updated to the story of a French Resistance fighter in WWII), and Manon 70 (1968), directed by Jean Aurel and starring Catherine Deneuve, updated to the present time.
Full texts at Project Gutenberg in the original French and in an English translation.
Modern translations by Leonard Tancock (Penguin Classics) and Angela Scholar (Oxford's World Classics.