Abbé Prévost

Antoine François Prévost d’Exiles (1697–1763) was a French novelist, translator, and former Benedictine monk, best known for the novel Manon Lescaut.

Manon Lescaut: A French novel by Prévost about the passionate, destructive relationship between Des Grieux and Manon. This novel became Prévost’s most enduring work and is often published independently from its original setting.
Benedictine Order: A Catholic monastic order following the Rule of Saint Benedict. Prévost joined the Benedictines and spent part of his early adulthood in monastic life.
Pierre-François Guyot Desfontaines: A French journalist, critic, and translator active in the eighteenth century. Desfontaines helped Prévost with literary work and became closely associated with his career.
L’Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut: The full title of Prévost’s story of Des Grieux and Manon, first published as part of a larger work. Its eventual separation from the larger memoir helped establish it as a standalone classic.
Epistolary novel: A novel told through letters, diary entries, or other documents presented as written records. Prévost’s first-person narrative frames draw on the period’s taste for documentary-seeming fiction.
Mémoires et aventures d’un homme de qualité: A multivolume fictional memoir by Prévost, within which Manon Lescaut first appeared. Its volumes establish the narrative frame that originally contained Manon Lescaut.
Congregation of Saint-Maur: A French Benedictine congregation known for scholarship and historical research. Prévost’s monastic career included a period with this learned congregation.
Samuel Richardson: An English novelist whose epistolary fiction shaped the European novel of the eighteenth century. Prévost translated Richardson’s novels into French, helping introduce them to French readers.
Manon (opera): An 1884 French opera by Jules Massenet based on Prévost’s Manon Lescaut. Massenet’s adaptation brought Prévost’s heroine to a new audience through French opera.
Frame story: A narrative structure in which one story encloses or introduces another. The larger memoir provides the frame for the first publication of Manon Lescaut.

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