Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut. [The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and of Manon Lescaut].

The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut by Antoine-François Prévost d'Exiles (1696–1763) — universally known as Manon Lescaut — is one of the masterpieces of eighteenth-century French fiction and one of the most influential novels in the history of European literature. First published in 1731 as the final installment of Prévost's seven-volume Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité, the work concerns the downward moral progress of the Chevalier des Grieux, a young seminary student of noble birth who sacrifices everything to the amoral, delicate, and forever enigmatic courtesan Manon — an ambiguous mixture of disinterested passion and shabby criminality in which love conquers all, but constantly requires vulgar money to sustain it. Prévost's successful blending of traditional romance and sordid realism, together with his ambivalent characterization of the Chevalier, made many consider the work a masterpiece. In 1733, all copies for sale in Paris were seized due to the volume's morally questionable content — an effective ban that contributed directly to an increase in popularity, prompting unauthorized reprints — and in 1753 Prévost published the novel as a revised standalone work, which is now the most commonly reprinted version. The story inspired operas by both Massenet and Puccini, ballets, and numerous film adaptations — making Manon Lescaut one of the most prolifically reimagined heroines in the Western artistic tradition.