A review by kenbooky
Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost

4.0

Manon Lescaut is a fictitious, first-person account of a suitor who doesn’t know when to quit. A tale of warning and woe as to not live one’s life devoid of responsibility and only for pleasure as the narrator, Chevalier Des Grieux so has. Chevy (for short) finds a mysterious handsome woman who seems almost accidentally placed in an all intense and purpose a chain gang in which he is told this woman is incredibly dangerous. Intrigued and instantaneously in love Chevy asks the woman to escape with him. Through bouts of infidelity and misdirection Chevy slowly loses not only his sanity but also his wealth at the beguiling of the beautiful Manon Lescaut. There were several moments in which I could help feeling bad for the poor woman the way this man refused to let her leave. I think the writer meant for us to feel bad for the male character and all he sacrificed, yet I can’t help but find him to be a bit of an unreliable narrator whom may even have been flat out stalking this woman. “I was the master of Manon‘s heart the only possession I cared for…”For our honeymoon Connor and I are seeing the ballet version of this play in France and thought it might be good to read ahead of time. Very cool story loved how the end cycles back to the beginning.