ANTOINE FRANÇOIS PREVOST

The inspiration for three films and several operas, this classic of French literature is set in Regency Paris and Louisiana around 1720. A tragic love story, it's also an epic adventure story with three infidelities, three escapes, three abductions and two murders. The action spans two continents and a social range extending from the aristocracy to the social outcast, from pillars of the establishment to pimps and prostitutes. Manon Lescaut's ambiguous love story has a transcendent significance: Is it a cautionary tale, warning of the dangers to which passion, blindly followed, can lead? Or does it illustrate the redemptive power of love? After all, Des Grieux's perseverance in his devotion to Manon eventually brings about a profound change of heart in her and seems to make possible a lasting happiness based on deep mutual affection. The ambiguity persists to the end, when death snatches that happiness away.

The sad love story of Manon Lescaut and the Chevalier des Grieux has always been popular because of the appeal of Manon, the heroine, who gives all for love but remains pragmatic to the core.

La Història del cavaller Des Grieux i de Manon Lescaut va ser publicada per primera vegada per separat el 1731, o després revisada i reeditada el 1753. Actualment es considera una de les obres mestres de la cultura francesa del Segle de les Llums, una novel.la que combina l'herència del racionalisme il.lustrat amb la nova sensibilitat romàntica, sense abandonar l'esquema de la tradició picaresca. Aquest relat, on es parla de sexe i de diners, de la fatalitat del desig i de la força de les convencions, conté el retrat d'una de les primeres, si no la primera femme fatale de la nostra tradició i és, en definitiva, un llibre d'una modernitat sorprenent.

Es difícil el acercamiento actual a la" Historia del Caballero Des Grieux y de Manon Lescaut" . La dimensión mítica, arquetípica, de su personaje femenino ha alienado la" obra literari