(1697-1763) novelist, translator
Antoine-Frangois Prevost was born to a wealthy attorney in Artois and was educated by Jesuits at their schools in Hesdin and Paris. From 1716 to 1719, he served in the army and then joined the Benedictine order in 1720. He was ordained a priest in 1726 and became the abbot of Saint-Germain de Pres (Paris) in 1728. He left the abbey without leave in 1728 and a lettre de cachet (royal arrest warrant) was issued for him. Prevost fled to England and later to Holland, where he stayed until 1734, when he reconciled with the Benedictine superiors. He took positions in monasteries until he became an almoner of the prince de Conti and, in 1754, became prior at St. Georges de Gesnes. He died in Chantilly.
Prevost began writing fiction before 1728 and published his most important work, Memoires et aventures d’un homme de qualite qui s’est retire du monde (Memoirs of a Man of Quality Retired from the World) in seven volumes (1728-30). He also wrote several historical novels based in England, such as L’Histoire de Monsieur Cleveland (The History of Mr. Cleveland, 1731-39) and Le Doyen de la Killerine (The Master of Killarney, 1735-40). Prevost’s fascination with English history and culture led him to translate Samuel richardson’s great novels into French, thus spreading their influence throughout Europe.
Prevost’s greatest contribution to world literature is the love story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut, which appeared in The Memoirs of a Man of Quality’s last volume and was republished separately in 1731. The tale of a well-bred, naive young man involved in a self-destructive love affair with a beautiful amoral prostitute resounded in the European imagination for more than a century. Prevost’s genius lay in capturing the psychological complexities of a dysfunctional love without judgment; he lets the characters, especially des Grieux the narrator, implicate themselves with their own actions and rationalizations. Manon Lescaut was so popular that both Puccini (1893) and Massenet (1884) created operas based on the novel; both versions are still performed and recorded today.
An English Version of a Work by Antoine-Frangois Prevost
Larkin, Steven, trans. Manon Lescaut. New York: Penguin Classics, 1992.
Works about Antoine-Frangois Prevost
Francis, R. A. Prevost, Manon Lescaut. London: Grant and Cutler, 1993.
Segal, Naomi. The Unintended Reader: Feminism and Manon Lescaut. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
