Manon Lescaut

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The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut (Template:Langx {{#invoke:IPA|main}}) is a novel by Antoine François Prévost. Most commonly referred to as simply Manon Lescaut, the novel is a tragic love story about a nobleman (known only as the Chevalier des Grieux) and a common woman (Manon Lescaut). Defying conventional morality, they run away together and commit an escalating series of crimes to fund a lifestyle of pleasure. The narrative is presented as a long speech by des Grieux nine months after Manon's death, and is often interrupted by his retrospective emotions. The novel is regarded as a classic, and is the most reprinted novel in French literature, with over 250 editions.Template:Sfn

The story was first published in 1731 in Amsterdam as the seventh and final volume of Prévost's serial novel Memoirs and Adventures of a Man of Quality (Template:Langx). In 1733, all copies for sale in Paris were seized due to the volume's morally questionable content. This effective ban contributed to an increase in popularity, prompting several unauthorized reprints of Manon Lescaut without the rest of the Memoirs and Adventures. In 1753, Prévost published a revised version of the standalone Manon Lescaut, which is now the most commonly reprinted version.

On the novel's first publication, the characters' choices were seen as shockingly immoral: their decision to live together without marriage is the start of a moral decline that also leads to gambling, fraud, theft, and murder. The novel was unusual for depicting Paris's "low life" and for discussing the lovers' money problems in numerical detail: both choices contribute to its realism and its aura of scandal.

The story is remembered for its tragic lovers, with des Grieux and Manon often compared to Romeo and Juliet or Tristan and Iseult. Over the centuries, audiences have judged Manon's morals and personality differently. Eighteenth-century audiences saw her as an unworthy figure who nonetheless inspired affection and pity due to the sincerity of her love for des Grieux. Nineteenth-century responses saw her as a nearly mythological temptress, either a femme fatale who corrupts des Grieux or a hooker with a heart of gold who is redeemed through her death. More recent scholarly analyses tend to see Manon as a victim of broader social forces, who is misunderstood and misrepresented by des Grieux's narration of her experience.

Manon Lescaut has had dozens of adaptations into plays, ballets, operas, and films. The most renowned stage adaptations are three operas: Daniel Auber's Manon Lescaut (1856), Jules Massenet's Manon (1884), and Giacomo Puccini's Manon Lescaut (1893). Manon Lescaut also heavily inspired Giuseppe Verdi's opera La traviata (1853), through its influence on the play and novel La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils. Notable film adaptations include the Hollywood silent film When a Man Loves (1927) and Manon 70 (1968), starring Catherine Deneuve as Manon.

Plot summaryEdit

The seventeen-year-old Chevalier des Grieux, a seminary student and the younger son of a noble family, falls in love at first sight with Manon, a common woman on her way to a convent. He persuades her to run away with him, disappointing his father and forfeiting his hereditary wealth. In Paris, the young lovers enjoy a blissful cohabitation, while des Grieux struggles to satisfy Manon's taste for luxury. He acquires money by increasingly desperate means: borrowing from his unwaveringly loyal friend Tiberge, cheating gamblers, stealing, and murder. On three occasions, des Grieux's wealth evaporates (by theft, in a house fire, etc.), prompting Manon to pursue a richer man for money because she cannot stand living in penury.

File:AlbertLynch The JollyBoat Large.jpg

Manon Lescaut and Her Lover, Des Grieux, Are Set Ashore in Louisiana (1896), by Albert Lynch

Manon is deported to New Orleans as a prostitute and des Grieux travels with her. They pretend to be married and live in idyllic peace for a while. Des Grieux reveals their unmarried state to the Governor, Étienne Perier, and asks to be wed to Manon. Perier's nephew, Synnelet, sets his sights on winning Manon's hand. In despair, des Grieux challenges Synnelet to a duel and knocks him unconscious. Thinking he has killed the man and fearing retribution, the couple flee New Orleans. They venture into the wilderness of Louisiana, hoping to reach an English settlement. Manon dies of exposure and exhaustion and des Grieux buries her, in the tragic climax of the tale. Heartbroken, he is taken back to France by Tiberge.

Composition and publicationEdit

File:Histoire Du Chevalier des Grieux & de Manon Lescaut 1731.png

First page of the original 1731 version of the story, as volume VII of Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de Qualité

Prévost likely composed Manon Lescaut in March and April 1731.Template:Sfn At the time, he was in Amsterdam, and was writing quickly to satisfy his contract with the Compagnie des Libraires d'Amsterdam.Template:Sfn The story was first published as volume VII of his successful novel Memoirs and Adventures of a Man of Quality, Who Withdrew from the World (Template:Langx), and was released with volumes V and VI in May 1731.Template:Sfn

The narrative of Manon Lescaut is set apart from the main events of Memoirs and Adventures, with a preface and a preamble.Template:Sfn The preface, titled "Note from the author" (Template:Langx), explains that the story was too large to include within the main narrative.Template:Sfn It also says the story will be a morally-instructive example for readers, who will learn not to imitate des Grieux.Template:Sfn The preamble is narrated by the unnamed "man of quality" (Template:Langx) who is the protagonist of the main novel. He witnesses a group of prostitutes being deported. Curious about a particularly beautiful one (Manon), he speaks with the lover travelling with her (des Grieux). Two years later, he encounters des Grieux again, and asks to hear the full story of his experience in America.Template:Sfn

A substantially revised edition appeared as a standalone publication in 1753.Template:Sfn The standalone volume was titled The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and of Manon Lescaut (Template:Langx),Template:Sfn which was the subtitle of volume VII of Memoirs and Adventures.Template:Sfn This edition claimed on its title page to be published in Amsterdam by the Compagnie des Libraires, but was actually published in Paris by François Didot.Template:Sfn In this edition, Prévost modified some of his most sensationalist language,Template:Sfn added a new scene where Manon resists the seduction of an Italian prince,Template:Sfn and rewrote the ending to replace des Grieux's religious conversion with a more secular morality.Template:Sfn The 1753 edition also added eight illustrations and an allegorical vignette on the first page.Template:Sfn

StyleEdit

The story is narrated as a long speech to the protagonist of Prévost's Memoirs and Adventures, delivered by des Grieux nine months after Manon's death.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn As such, it is an early example of the French genre of the confessional récit.Template:Sfn All events are recounted in the first person, and shaped by des Grieux's retrospective self-justifications.Template:Sfn The novel does not use quotation marks, even when des Grieux relates what other characters have said.Template:Sfn This blurs the boundaries between characters' speech and free indirect speech.Template:Sfn Des Grieux's telling frequently interrupts the narrative with apostrophes to absent figures and expressions of intense emotion.Template:Sfn When he describes Manon, he often stutters or struggles to find words.Template:Sfn

Major themesEdit

File:The Burial of Manon Lescaut by Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret.png

The Burial of Manon Lescaut (1878), by Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret

Tragic loveEdit

The story is particularly remembered for its tragic lovers, with des Grieux and Manon being compared to Romeo and Juliet and Tristan and Iseult.Template:Sfn The scholar Jean Sgard argues that all of Prévost's writing, including Manon Lescaut, is ultimately about "the impossibility of happiness, the pervasiveness of evil and the misfortune attaching to the passions," all of which lead to "mourning without end".Template:Sfn Although the book depicts its protagonists as suffering due to their poverty, it is not a populist novel that advocates for social reform.Template:Sfn Instead, the novel responds to their struggles with sadness and resignation.Template:Sfn It is an early example of the emerging sentimental novel, in which love can justify anything, and important moral value is placed on strong emotion.Template:Sfn

Scandalizing immoralityEdit

On the novel's first publication, the characters and their choices were seen as shockingly immoral.Template:Sfn Des Grieux's rejection of the priesthood in favor of a sexual relationship without marriage, and his crimes of fraud and murder, challenged readers' expectations of acceptable actions for the hero of a novel.Template:Sfn Manon's willingness to have sex for money, and her general taste for pleasure and luxury, also seemed irreconcilable with her narrative role as a sympathetic love object.Template:Sfn Both were sometimes seen as corrupted characters,Template:Sfn and the novel's realistic depiction of Paris's "low life" was unusual and potentially threatening.Template:Sfn Although the preface claims to disavow the characters' misbehavior, this is usually seen as an insincere pretense.Template:Sfn The scandal was intensified by the historical setting of the novel: the story is set fifteen years before the year Prévost wrote it, so it takes place during the final years of Louis XIV's conservative and orderly reign, rather than during the regency of King Louis XV when stories of corruption would be less surprising.Template:Sfn

Social rank and moneyEdit

File:Voici l'homme que j'aime — Manon Lescaut (cropped).png

Engraving from the 1753 illustrated edition, in which Manon reassures des Grieux that he is the only man she loves.Template:Efn

The novel is unusual in the French tradition for its detailed depiction of lower-class locations and activities, especially the criminal world.Template:Sfn Manon is considered "the first commoner heroine in French fiction",Template:Sfn and the gulf in social rank between her and the noble des Grieux is an obstacle to their love.Template:Sfn Des Grieux and Manon sometimes struggle to understand each other due to their different backgrounds.Template:Sfn For example, she does not understand why des Grieux is surprised and upset after she acquires money from other lovers; her different background leads her to see these as practical affairs, which do not threaten her love for des Grieux.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Their difference in rank is also apparent in the different punishments they receive for their transgressions.Template:Sfn When both lovers are imprisoned for some of their crimes, des Grieux's aristocratic status shields him from the worst consequences while Manon ends up deported.Template:Sfn Des Grieux often assumes—correctly—that even complete strangers will be willing to help him, if they share his aristocratic background.Template:Sfn The novel thus highlights how justice is enforced unequally for different ranks of society.Template:Sfn

File:Elle s'assit lorsque nous fûmes seuls .. (IFF 8), G.11541(2) (cropped).jpg

1827 engraving of Manon crying, consoled by des Grieux, during one of their stints of poverty

A distinct, and even greater challenge is their lack of money.Template:Sfn As an aristocrat, des Grieux is barred from ordinary employment; he could earn a professional income in the church, the military, or the law, but only if he still had his father's support.Template:Sfn The literary scholar Haydn Mason describes the novel's setting as "a harsh and sordid world, motivated almost universally by money."Template:Sfn Manon Lescaut is often highlighted as the first French novel to treat money as a major theme.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Exact numbers are provided throughout the novel, an unusual choice that contributes to the novel's realism.Template:Sfn Manon begins the novel with a dowry of 300 livres, which is less than a tenth of an ordinary dowry for a woman entering a convent.Template:Sfn The annual salary for a servant (Manon and de Grieux each keep one) was 100 livres, while Manon and de Grieux consider a "respectable but simple" annual income to be 6,000 livres per year.Template:Sfn The financial gap between the lovers and their servants is large, but the gap between them and their patrons is even larger: two of Manon's lovers offer her 20,000 and 30,000 livres as annual spending money.Template:Sfn

The character of ManonEdit

Since the novel's first publication, substantial critical analysis has focused on the interpretation of Manon's character.Template:Sfn Because Manon's words and actions are always related through the filter of des Grieux's retrospective storytelling, readers can only speculate about her real thoughts, feelings, and intentions.Template:Sfn

The earliest reviews in 1733 saw Manon as sympathetic but unexpectedly so, an unworthy "whore" (Template:Langx) who was nonetheless appealing due to the sincerity of her love for des Grieux.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn She was both blamed and forgiven for des Grieux's corruption.Template:Sfn The 1753 illustrations reinforced the image of Manon as someone to be loved, pitied, and forgiven for her mistakes.Template:Sfn Eighteenth-century readers also saw Manon and des Grieux as helpless, fated to a tragic ending.Template:Sfn The crimes of both were equally justified by their love and their financial need.Template:Sfn

File:The Story of Manon Lescaut and the Chevalier Des Grieux (cropped).jpg

1886 illustration of Manon as Eve

Manon's reputation began to change in the nineteenth century, as she became a near-mythological figure.Template:Sfn Rather than being a simple, lighthearted girl of common birth, she was depicted as either a femme fatale who destroys des Grieux, or as a hooker with a heart of gold who is redeemed through her death.Template:Sfn Adaptations like the popular opera Manon (1884) characterized Manon as powerfully seductive.Template:Sfn Alexandre Dumas fils, whose novel The Lady of the Camellias (1848) was heavily inspired by Manon Lescaut, wrote of Manon: "you are sensuality, you are instinct, you are pleasure, the eternal temptation of man."Template:Sfn The literary historian Naomi Segal summarizes this period as one in which most critics "tend to view Manon as if she were a real woman and to heap upon her all the myths which operate within sexual politics in the non-fictional world".Template:Sfn

Twentieth-century scholarly interpretations tended to see Manon as the victim, not of her own weakness, but of various social systems.Template:Sfn For these readers, des Grieux's version of events is considered suspect,Template:Sfn and it is important to imagine how Manon might have narrated her story differently.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Feminist theorists like Nancy K. Miller and Segal see Manon as a narrative victim of patriarchy.Template:Sfn Cultural-historical theorists see the novel as a conflict between aristocratic and bourgeois ideologies; Manon is marginalized by her class, but makes savvy decisions to strategically ensure her survival.Template:Sfn Outside of academia, modern readers sometimes find Manon underdeveloped as a character.Template:Sfn Twenty-first century adaptations reinforced a sociological interpretation of Manon's character.Template:Sfn Several adaptations translate the story to more recent time periods in French history, in which Manon is always a non-conformist who boldly pursues love despite disadvantaged circumstances.Template:Sfn

ReceptionEdit

Manon Lescaut gained popularity gradually.Template:Sfn When first published in 1731 as part of Memoirs and Adventures, it was not discussed separately from the rest of the novel.Template:Sfn Over the next few years, it was increasingly seen as a highlight of that novel.Template:Sfn Reviewers universally praised the novel, especially for its success inducing tears.Template:Sfn Memoirs and Adventures sold well in Holland and England on its first release, and a 1732 German translation was also successful, but it was largely ignored in France until 1733.Template:Sfn

File:Je placai l'idole de mon coeur dans une large fosse (cropped).png

Illustration from the 1753 edition of Manon Lescaut, published in response to popular unauthorized reprints of the volume

In July 1733, the release of a new edition in Paris prompted a review in the clandestine Journal de la Cour et de Paris, which brought it to the attention of many new readers, including the famous author Voltaire.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn On October 5, the French censors (who needed to approve all new publications) seized the copies currently for sale due to the book's morally questionable content.Template:Sfn Template:Efn This effective ban led to a sudden increase in popularity.Template:Sfn As part of this new popularity, Manon Lescaut was printed separately from Memoirs and Adventures several times in 1733 and 1734,Template:Sfn though these were unauthorized reprints.Template:Sfn In 1753, Prévost responded with a high-quality revised edition of Manon Lescaut as a self-contained novel.Template:Sfn Both Memoirs and Adventures and the standalone Manon Lescaut were reprinted frequently, with twenty editions of the first and eight of the latter appearing between 1731 and Prévost's death in 1763.Template:Sfn

Interest in the novel waned at the start of the nineteenth century, followed by another dramatic increase in popularity in 1830,Template:Sfn when it was adapted as a ballet.Template:Sfn Many further adaptations followed, with new reprints of Manon Lescaut each year.Template:Sfn In the late nineteenth century, editions were released with prefaces written by the famous French authors Alexandre Dumas fils in 1875 and Anatole France in 1878.Template:Sfn Over time, the novel came to be regarded as a historical classic.Template:Sfn It became the most reprinted novel in French literature, with over 250 editions published between 1731 and 1981.Template:Sfn

AdaptationsEdit

Stage adaptationsEdit

File:Sibyl Sanderson. Opéra-Comique. Manon. Rôle de Manon Lescaut. 19 octobre 1891 - btv1b532789757 (cropped).jpg

Sibyl Sanderson as Manon for an 1891 production of Jules Massenet's Manon (1884)

File:Maria Farneti7 (cropped).jpg

Maria Farneti as Manon for a 1900 production of Giacomo Puccini's Manon Lescaut (1893)

The first theatrical adaptation of Manon Lescaut was in 1772.Template:Sfn This was a comedy titled The Virtuous Courtesan (Template:Langx),Template:Sfn which ends with Manon surviving.Template:Sfn It attempted to mix a sensitive and emotional portrayal of the lovers with some humour,Template:Sfn but reviewers found it far inferior to the novel.Template:Sfn There were a few dramas in the eighteenth century and the Romantic period, followed by a larger number in the early twentieth century.Template:Sfn Relatively few of the early theatrical adaptations of Manon Lescaut have survived.Template:Sfn Although ballets and operas of Manon Lescaut became popular,Template:Sfn only three theatrical dramas had even a modest success: The Virtuous Courtesan (1772), Manon Lescaut et le chevalier Desgrieux (1820), and Manon Lescaut (1851).Template:Sfn All three include some incidental music, and the 1820 melodrama is also accompanied by a ballet.Template:Sfn These adaptations dramatize the narrative in similar ways.Template:Sfn Key scenes that they consistently include are the reconciliation at Saint-Sulpice, the scene with the Italian prince, and des Grieux's desperate burial of Manon in Louisiana.Template:Sfn

The first operatic adaptation, in 1836, was not a success.Template:Sfn The literary historian Jean Sgard argues that operatic adaptations came late in the legacy of the novel because the story's mixture of genres was incompatible with the eighteenth century's dominant genre of serious opera characterized by Handel and Rameau.Template:Sfn An important change in operatic precedent came after Giuseppe Verdi's highly successful 1853 opera, La traviata ("The Fallen Woman").Template:Sfn La traviata is based on the play and novel The Lady of the Camellias (Template:Langx) by Alexandre Dumas fils, which are themselves heavily inspired by Manon Lescaut.Template:Sfn After 1853, six operas based on Manon Lescaut were written.Template:Sfn These operas varied widely in how they adapted the story: it was divided into differing numbers of sections (from three to seven acts), and adaptations existed in the different operatic genres of comic opera, opera, and lyric drama.Template:Sfn The most renowned adaptations of Manon Lescaut are the operas by Daniel Auber (1856), Jules Massenet (1884), and Giacomo Puccini (1893).Template:Sfn

In the theatrical and operatic adaptations, Manon's three lovers are combined into just one.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Theatrical adaptations simplify the plot to one instance of infidelity, a reconciliation, and then the final tragedy,Template:Sfn and operatic adaptations forgo the novel's long decline to dramatically juxtapose young love and tragic death.Template:Sfn The literary scholar Jean Sgard argues that, by reducing the complexity of the narrative, the theatrical adaptations present the lovers as being disproportionately punished for a single mistake, rather than capturing the novel's feeling of a gradual descent into immorality.Template:Sfn He further argues that operatic adaptations are forced to focus on a one-note characterization of Manon,Template:Sfn Template:Efn and each opera's evaluation of her moral character is expressed in its depiction of her death.Template:Sfn

List of dramas, operas and balletsEdit

The Virtuous Courtesan (Template:Langx) (1772), a theatrical comedy by Brenner à C. RibiéTemplate:Sfn Template:Efn
Manon Lescaut et le chevalier Desgrieux (1820), a melodrama by Étienne Gosse Template:Sfn
Manon Lescaut (1830), a ballet by Jean-Louis Aumer<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn

Manon Lescaut, or the Maid of Artois (1836), an opera by the Irish composer Michael-William Balfe Template:Sfn Template:Efn
Manon Lescaut (1846), a ballet by Giovanni Casati<ref name=":0" />Template:Efn
Manon Lescaut (1851), a drama by Théodore Barrière and Marc FournierTemplate:Sfn
Manon Lescaut (1852), a ballet by Giovanni Colinelli<ref name=":0" />Template:Efn
Manon Lescaut (1856), an opera by French composer Daniel Auber Template:Sfn Template:Efn
Manon (1884), an opera by French composer Jules Massenet Template:Sfn Template:Efn
Manon Lescaut, or the Castle of Lorme (Template:Langx) (1887), an opera by Richard KleinmichelTemplate:Sfn
Manon Lescaut (1893), an opera by the Italian composer Giacomo Puccini Template:Sfn Template:Efn
Manon Lescaut (1940), a drama in verse by Czech poet Vítězslav Nezval<ref name=":0" />Template:Efn
Boulevard Solitude (1952), an opera by German composer Hans Werner Henze Template:Sfn Template:Efn
Manon (1974), a ballet with music by Jules Massenet and choreography by Kenneth MacMillan<ref name="MacMillan">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn

Manon (2015), a musical written for the Takarazuka troupe by librettist/director Keiko Ueda and composer Joy Son<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Film adaptationsEdit

File:When a Man Loves (1927) - 1.jpg

John Barrymore as des Grieux and Dolores Costello as Manon in When a Man Loves (1927)

Manon Lescaut was adapted several times after the invention of film.<ref name=":1" /> These include a series of silent films, the most prominent of which is the 1927 Hollywood adaptation titled When a Man Loves.<ref name=":1" /> Early adaptations were period films, set in the early eighteenth century;<ref name=":1" /> later film adaptations translate the novel's story to a contemporary setting.Template:Sfn The 1949 film Manon by Henri-Georges Clouzot depicts des Grieux as a member of the French Resistance and Manon as a Nazi collaborator; he and Manon enter the black market and eventually stowaway to Palestine with a group of Jewish refugees.Template:Sfn<ref name=":0" /> In Manon 70 by Jean Aurel, released in 1968 and set in the near-future of 1970, des Grieux is a globetrotting radio journalist who tags along with Manon's sugar baby lifestyle;Template:Sfn instead of ending with Manon's tragic death, this film concludes with both Manon and des Grieux hitchhiking.Template:Sfn A pair of television miniseries directed by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade in 2014 and 2017 presents Manon as a contemporary young woman in a youth detention center Template:Efn who is failed by social systems and lives precariously.Template:Sfn

List of filmsEdit

Manon Lescaut (1908), Italian silent film directed by Carlo Rossi<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Manon Lescaut (1914), American silent film directed by H.H. Winslow<ref name=":0" />
Manon Lescaut (1926), German silent film directed by Arthur Robison, with Lya de Putti and Marlene Dietrich<ref name=":0" /><ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>
When a Man Loves (1927), American silent film directed by Alan Crosland, with John Barrymore and Dolores Costello<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Manon Lescaut (1940), Italian, directed by Carmine Gallone, with Vittorio de Sica and Alida Valli<ref>Klossner, Michael. The Europe of 1500-1815 on Film and Television. McFarland & Company, 2002. p. 242</ref>
Manon (1949), French, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, with Michel Auclair and Cécile Aubry<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Sfn

The Lovers of Manon Lescaut (1954), French, directed by Mario Costa<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Manon 70 (1968), French, directed by Jean Aurel, with Catherine Deneuve and Sami Frey Template:Sfn Template:Sfn
Manon (1981), Japanese, directed by Yōichi Higashi<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Manón (1986), Venezuelan, directed by Román Chalbaud, with Mayra Alejandra<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Manon Lescaut (2013), French television film, directed by Gabriel Aghion, with Céline Perreau and Samuel Theis<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Sfn

3 x Manon (2014) and Manon, 20 years old (Template:Langx) (2017), French television miniseries by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade Template:Sfn

TranslationsEdit

The 1753 version of the novel is more common in modern editions.Template:Sfn English translations of the original 1731 version of the novel include Helen Waddell's 1931 translation with a foreword by George Saintsbury.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> For the 1753 revision there are translations by, among others, L. W. Tancock (Penguin, 1949—which divides the 2-part novel into a number of chapters),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Donald M. Frame (Signet, 1961—which notes differences between the 1731 and 1753 editions),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Angela Scholar (Oxford, 2004—with extensive notes and commentary),Template:Sfn and Andrew Brown (Hesperus, 2004—with a foreword by Germaine Greer).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Henri Valienne (1854–1908), a physician and author of the first novel in the constructed language Esperanto, translated Manon Lescaut into that language. His translation was published in Paris in 1908,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and reissued by the British Esperanto Association in 1926.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

IllustrationsEdit

Several illustrated editions of Manon Lescaut have been produced, though it attracted substantially fewer illustrations than other bestsellers of the period like Voltaire's 1759 novella Candide.Template:Sfn A 1963 catalogue identified 63 editions with original or notable illustrations, produced globally.Template:Sfn The illustrations introduced in the 1758 edition made the book into a "luxury object", and also made it more challenging to pirate.Template:Sfn New illustrated editions continued to be produced most decades from 1780 to 1980.Template:Sfn The novel also inspired a range of standalone visual interpretations, not published within an edition of the novel, though again fewer than similar eighteenth-century bestsellers; the visual iconography of Paul et Virginie (1788), for example, more firmly entered popular culture.Template:Sfn