Die Abenteuer der Manon Lescaut

Die Abenteuer der Manon Lescaut Antoine François Prévost - Der junge Chevalier Des Grieux hat seine Studien beendet und steht kurz vor der Abreise aus Amiens, als er der liebenswürdigen Manon Lescaut begegnet. Seine weitere berufliche Laufbahn - er soll Ritter des Malteserordens werden - gerät in den Hintergrund. Des Grieux entführt seine junge Geliebte nach Paris und beginnt dort ein zweifelhaftes Leben. Er wird zum Spieler und muss miterleben, wie ihn Manon mit dem wohlhabenden Monsieur de B. betrügt. Der Chevalier nimmt, scheinbar geläutert, in Paris ein Theologiestudium auf und scheint von seiner Leidenschaft kuriert, bis Manon erneut seinen Weg kreuzt. Wieder gibt Des Grieux seine Studien auf, um mit ihr zusammenzuleben. Ihr Bruder erscheint und gewährt Des Grieux Einblicke in das Leben als Falschspieler. Ebenso taucht Monsieur de G.M. auf, der sich Manons Gunst gern etwas kosten lässt, doch rasch merkt, dass Des Grieux und Manon hauptsächlich an seinem Geld interessiert sind. Er lässt Des Grieux ins Gefängnis und Manon ins Arbeitshaus bringen. Als sich der Sohn des Herrn von G.M. in Manon verliebt, schmiedet der enttäuschte Des Grieux einen Plan, der jedoch mit Verhaftungen endet. Manon wird aufgrund ihres liederlichen Lebenswandels nach Amerika deportiert, wohin ihr Des Grieux folgt. Dort ist es der Sohn des französischen Gouverneurs, der sich Hoffnungen auf Manons Zuneigung macht. Es kommt zum Duell mit Des Grieux. Dieser schiesst ihn nieder und flieht mit Manon, die jedoch bald darauf in den Armen ihres Geliebten stirbt.

He was born at Hesdin, Artois, and first appears with the full name of Prévost d'Exiles, in a letter to the booksellers of Amsterdam in 1731. His father, Lievin Prévost, was a lawyer, and several members of the family had embraced the ecclesiastical estate. Prévost was educated at the Jesuit school of Hesdin, and in 1713 became a novice of the order in Paris, pursuing his studies at the same time at the college in La Flèche.At the end of 1716 he left the Jesuits to join the army, but soon tired of military life, and returned to Paris in 1719, apparently with the idea of resuming his novitiate. He is said to have travelled in the Netherlands about this time; in any case he returned to the army, this time with a commission. Some biographers have assumed that he suffered some of the misfortunes assigned to his hero Des Grieux. Whatever the truth, he joined the learned community of the Benedictines of St Maur, with whom he found refuge, he himself says, after the unlucky termination of a love affair. He took his vows at Jumièges in 1721 after a year's novitiate, and in 1726 took priest's orders at St Germer de Flaix. He spent seven years in various houses of the order, teaching, preaching and studying. In 1728 he was at the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, where he was engaged on the Gallia Christiana, the learned work undertaken by the monks in continuation of the works of Denys de Sainte-Marthe, who had been a member of their order. His restless spirit made him seek from the Pope a transfer to the easier rule of Cluny; but he left the abbey without leave (1728), and, learning that his superiors had obtained a lettre de cachet against him, fled to England.In London he acquired a wide knowledge of English history and literature, as can be seen in his writings. Before leaving the Benedictines Prévost had begun perhaps his most famous novel, Mémoires et aventures dun homme de qualité qui sest retiré du monde, the first four volumes of which were published in Paris in 1728, and two years later at Amsterdam. In 1729 he left England for the Netherlands, where he began to publish (Utrecht, 1731) a novel, the material of which, at least, had been gathered in London Le Philosophe anglais, ou Histoire de Monsieur Cleveland, fils naturel de Cromwell, écrite par lui-même, et traduite de l'anglais (Paris 1731-1739, 8 vols., but most of the existing sets are partly Paris and partly Utrecht). A spurious fifth volume (Utrecht, 1734) contained attacks on the Jesuits, and an English translation of the whole appeared in 1734.Meanwhile, during his residence at the Hague, he engaged on a translation of De Thou's Historia, and, relying on the popularity of his first book, published at Amsterdam a Suite in three volumes, forming volumes v, vi, and vii of the original Mémoires et aventures dun homme de qualité. The seventh volume contained the famous Manon Lescaut, separately published in Paris in 1731 as Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut. The book was eagerly read, chiefly in pirated copies, being forbidden in France. In 1733 he left the Hague for London in company with a lady whose character, according to Prévost's enemies, was doubtful. In London he edited a weekly gazette on the model of Joseph Addison's Spectator, Le Pour et contre, which he continued to produce, with short intervals, until 1740.