Manon Lescaut

Prévost’s short, tragic novel follows the young chevalier des Grieux, who abandons everything—family, honour, freedom—for his passionate, faithless love of the alluring Manon Lescaut. A landmark study of obsessive desire and moral ruin, it moves swiftly from Paris salons to exile in America. Its raw emotional power made it a scandal and a classic, and inspired operas by Puccini and Massenet.