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Biography of Abbé PrévostName: Abbé PrévostBirth Date: 1697 Death Date: 1763 Place of Birth: N/A Nationality: French Gender: Male Occupations: author Abbé Prévost The French novelist, journalist, and cleric Abbé Prévost (1697-1763) was an adventurer who lived by his intrigues and his pen. His best-known work is the novel "Manon Lescaut."Antoine François Prévost d'Exiles, who is known as the Abbé Prévost, was first exposed to conventual discipline when he entered a Jesuit school at the age of 14, following his father's death. In the years that ensued, he alternated military service, love affairs, and intense literary activity with periods as first a Jesuit and then a Benedictine novice. He was ordained a Benedictine priest in 1721 and for eight years engaged in study, teaching, and scholarly work in a variety of Benedictine communities.Restless and unhappy, he settled for a time at St-Germain-des-Prés in Paris, where he began to write in secret the fictional compendium Les Mémoires et aventures d'un homme …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…roman personnel, or personal novel. It is highly compressed, direct, sparing in style and episode; characteristically, it unfolds through a series of psychological revelations. The operas Manon (1884) by Jules Massenet and Manon Lescaut (1893) by Giacomo Puccini are based on this work.From 1754, when Prévost was asked to write a history of the Condé family, he resided at Saint-Firmin in order to be close to the family archives in Chantilly. He died suddenly from apoplexy (or from a ruptured aorta) returning home at night through the forest of Chantilly. Further Reading The translation of Manon Lescaut by Burton Rascoe (1919) is a readable version of the novel. The Modern Library translation includes a brief introduction in English by Guy de Maupassant. The best works on Prévost are in French. A useful study in English is George R. Havens, The Abbé Prévost and English Literature (1921). |