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3.13 AVERAGE
3.13 AVERAGE
I enjoyed this read for the observations of a 1700's story...and how well it translates to current perspective. However, the characters are the kind you just want to shake! The main fellow is not merely blinded by love...he's made completely senseless by desperate obsession. It was a tragedy...and I am the sort who weeps throughout a tragic story...but not once did I shed a tear, not even as the story concluded.
adventurous
inspiring
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
I’m one of those who were never truly tempted by chivalric romance, courtly love, super-knights and endless quests, adventurous musketeers and pretty ladies with complex hairstyles and tight corsets. Though I must admit, every now and then I enjoy watching a film on the matter, if handsome actors are involved, if you know what I mean. Still, I can’t help wondering how come only the good guys, the brave and the strong ones are neat and cute, and all the others are ugly as hell and seem not to have touched water and soap (or whatever they were using) in ages.
Given the premise, I basically had no reason to read [b:Manon Lescaut|577246|Manon Lescaut (Penguin Classics)|L'Abbé Prévost|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175959272s/577246.jpg|649139], yet there I was, picking it up, thinking it was too long a time since it had been among other unread books and imagining I was going to enjoy it.
Prévost, a smart and prolific man, from what I’ve read, wrote the book somewhere towards the middle of the 18th century, but it seems to have caused so much scandal that it had to be burned, so he revised the book and published it again a few decades later and it is seen, even today, one of the most touching, passionate and painful love stories in the French literature. Oh, well.
It’s not that I didn’t like it, but I was constantly annoyed by des Grieux (young wannabe chevalier) and his stupid and childish decisions. So he convinces the very young Manon Lescaut not to go to the monastery, where she is sent against her will because she loves the world too much, and run away with him. Classic. But the stupid kids don’t have a penny on their name so they need to come up with plans to live in the high society, because, isn’t it so? Manon needs to go to the opera and have all sorts of amusements. Crap.
To cut it short: Manon, the pure and kind and so-much-in-love-with-des Grieux, throws herself to the first guy with money (and the second, for that matter), in order to (financially) protect their love. Petite whore? I think so. Des Grieux stupidly comes back to her, time after time, agreeing to be an accomplice in Manon’s schemes, only to have her love.
Questions: Why does des Grieux only starts thinking of working in Louisiana (where Manon is sent and he obediently follows)? How come in Paris none of them has the decency of thinking of something worth doing to earn some money? Yeah, I get it. You’re a chevalier, you don’t work in Paris, you rely on your father’s money. Too bad he leaves you penniless, smart ass. How easy is it to die overnight when you realize you’ve got no escape? You just wish for, and in the morning you’re cold? Come on, Monsieur Prévost!
And for those around here who say [b:Manon Lescaut|577246|Manon Lescaut (Penguin Classics)|L'Abbé Prévost|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175959272s/577246.jpg|649139] is an archaic book, look up archaic in the dictionary, please. And you, who say the book is about sex. sex. sex. take a cold shower. Urgently.
Given the premise, I basically had no reason to read [b:Manon Lescaut|577246|Manon Lescaut (Penguin Classics)|L'Abbé Prévost|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175959272s/577246.jpg|649139], yet there I was, picking it up, thinking it was too long a time since it had been among other unread books and imagining I was going to enjoy it.
Prévost, a smart and prolific man, from what I’ve read, wrote the book somewhere towards the middle of the 18th century, but it seems to have caused so much scandal that it had to be burned, so he revised the book and published it again a few decades later and it is seen, even today, one of the most touching, passionate and painful love stories in the French literature. Oh, well.
It’s not that I didn’t like it, but I was constantly annoyed by des Grieux (young wannabe chevalier) and his stupid and childish decisions. So he convinces the very young Manon Lescaut not to go to the monastery, where she is sent against her will because she loves the world too much, and run away with him. Classic. But the stupid kids don’t have a penny on their name so they need to come up with plans to live in the high society, because, isn’t it so? Manon needs to go to the opera and have all sorts of amusements. Crap.
To cut it short: Manon, the pure and kind and so-much-in-love-with-des Grieux, throws herself to the first guy with money (and the second, for that matter), in order to (financially) protect their love. Petite whore? I think so. Des Grieux stupidly comes back to her, time after time, agreeing to be an accomplice in Manon’s schemes, only to have her love.
Questions: Why does des Grieux only starts thinking of working in Louisiana (where Manon is sent and he obediently follows)? How come in Paris none of them has the decency of thinking of something worth doing to earn some money? Yeah, I get it. You’re a chevalier, you don’t work in Paris, you rely on your father’s money. Too bad he leaves you penniless, smart ass. How easy is it to die overnight when you realize you’ve got no escape? You just wish for, and in the morning you’re cold? Come on, Monsieur Prévost!
And for those around here who say [b:Manon Lescaut|577246|Manon Lescaut (Penguin Classics)|L'Abbé Prévost|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175959272s/577246.jpg|649139] is an archaic book, look up archaic in the dictionary, please. And you, who say the book is about sex. sex. sex. take a cold shower. Urgently.
adventurous
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
He's a young man with a beautiful future ahead of him, and he loves her desperately. So he forsakes his future for her and they run away to live blissfully ever after.
Well, not so blissfully. She's in love with luxury and his fortune keeps vanishing in a bout of misfortune, so she betrays him over and over in order to satisfy her desires, while trying to improve both their fortunes through her betrayal:
"I protest to you, dearest chevalier, that you are the idol of my heart, and that you are the only being on earth whom I can truly love; but do you not see, my own poor dear chevalier, that in the situation to which we are now reduced, fidelity would be worse than madness? Do you think tenderness possibly compatible with starvation? For my part, hunger would be sure to drive me to some fatal end. Heaving some day a sigh for love, I should find it was my last. I adore you, rely upon that; but leave to me, for a short while, the management of our fortunes."
Misfortune follows them everywhere, however.
I read this book five years ago and remember liking it a lot at the time - it was more of a whirlwind than I was expecting, and the morality in it was much grayer than I'd have thought from a classic centered on the topic of love.
Well, not so blissfully. She's in love with luxury and his fortune keeps vanishing in a bout of misfortune, so she betrays him over and over in order to satisfy her desires, while trying to improve both their fortunes through her betrayal:
"I protest to you, dearest chevalier, that you are the idol of my heart, and that you are the only being on earth whom I can truly love; but do you not see, my own poor dear chevalier, that in the situation to which we are now reduced, fidelity would be worse than madness? Do you think tenderness possibly compatible with starvation? For my part, hunger would be sure to drive me to some fatal end. Heaving some day a sigh for love, I should find it was my last. I adore you, rely upon that; but leave to me, for a short while, the management of our fortunes."
Misfortune follows them everywhere, however.
I read this book five years ago and remember liking it a lot at the time - it was more of a whirlwind than I was expecting, and the morality in it was much grayer than I'd have thought from a classic centered on the topic of love.
funny
informative
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
The main characters were a bit annoying to read about and the plot was repetitive.