In this blog post, we deeply explore the meaning and background of why youthful emotions sometimes invite danger and tragedy, through the passionate and reckless love displayed by the protagonists in 『Manon Lescaut』.
Nat King Cole was an American singer who passed away decades ago. Though he was active way back in the mid-1900s, he has a song that remains beloved by people today. It’s called 『Too Young』. The lyrics go like this:
They try to tell us we’re too young,
Too young to really be in love.
They say that love’s a word,
A word we’ve only heard,
But can’t begin to know the meaning of.
But we’re not too young to know
This love will last though years may go,
And then someday they may recall
We were not too young
It’s the perfect song to recall while reading Abbé Prévost’s Manon Lescaut. The protagonists, des Grieux and Manon, are in their late teens. They are young. And they are caught in a love that is truly dangerous beyond compare. Both are completely blinded by love, madly in love. To adults, they are truly foolish children.
Yet the two protagonists are unapologetic. Everything they do, they do because they love each other. Des Grieux gambles, cheats, escapes prison, and even commits murder. He betrays his father’s expectations, acts disloyally, and disappoints his friends. He ultimately abandons everything he once possessed. Manon, while selling herself for money, boldly declares, “I did it to regain our happiness, so I thought you would understand. I did it because I love you too.” The two ultimately reach a point where they even defy death. Of course, des Grieux survives, but…
To the protagonist’s father, his son merely presents a pitiful spectacle, having lost all reason and honor. In his father’s eyes, that isn’t love. It’s just playing with fire. The son who mistakes dangerous play for love is still just a child. Like Nat King Cole’s song says, he’s still too young “to really fall in love.”
Father, so what is real love in the eyes of adults? It’s love with discernment. Mature love, love grounded in reality. Not blind love, but love with eyes wide open. But let’s be honest. Love, especially young love, isn’t like that. Love is a word completely unrelated to maturity. Love is a word completely unrelated to discernment. Love just comes and captures me like that. It’s sweet and dangerous. It brings happiness while simultaneously inflicting pain. Love can cause us to lose many things. Yet that love moves us. Why? Because everyone yearns for love. And because love itself is noble.
After reading 『Manon Lescaut』, the 18th-century French philosopher Montesquieu remarked that it was only natural people loved this novel. The male protagonist, des Grieux, is a degenerate and a swindler, and the female protagonist, Manon, is a woman of ill repute who frequents reformatories. Yet, Montesquieu argued, they became that way due to the noble motive of love. He said that their actions, however base, never diminish that nobility.
Indeed. Love is noble. Love stands above any other value in this world. Is there not a verse in the Bible that says, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love”?
Yet love comes in many forms. Love is noble, but the love in Manon Lescaut is not the only noble love. In a way, the love between des Grieux and Manon might be the most dangerous kind of love. Yet it is wrong to say that it is trivial, merely a fleeting infatuation, not true love. It is especially wrong to tell young people they are too young to know true love. Such words drag the noble down into the vulgar.
The beauty of youth lies in its blindness. It lies in blindly pursuing the noble. Frankly, I want to see such noble love in this vulgar world. I want to see such passionate love. Not the calculating, cold love that weighs every little thing, but the kind of love that gives everything it has. That’s why I want to say this.
“How bleak is youth that has never felt the lure of tragic, blind love? How barren is youth that does not yearn for such love?”
『Manon Lescaut』 is a song of such mad love, a love song that moves us. That’s why French novelist André Gide counted 『Manon Lescaut』 among France’s three great love novels, alongside Stendhal’s 『The Red and the Black』 and Laclos’s 『Dangerous Liaisons』. Let’s read this novel and feel the passion of love within us.
Abbé Prévost led a very eventful life. He was a monk, then became a soldier, and also worked as a journalist. He never stayed in one place, wandering through many countries. During this time, he decided to write. Once he began writing, he published works prolifically. However, he did not achieve great success.
In truth, few truly great writers achieved major success in 18th-century France. That era is often called the ‘Age of Enlightenment’. Simply put, Enlightenment meant the idea that knowledge should be widely disseminated to the masses to free them from ignorance. Put another way, it was an era when many intellectuals strove to illuminate the world with the ‘bright light of reason’.
Naturally, the leading figures of that era were intellectuals and philosophers. While philosophers of that time did write novels, they mostly did so to disseminate their ideas widely using the novel form. Thus, it was an atmosphere where the birth of a great writer was difficult.
Abbé Prévost, who wrote diligently, produced a 20-volume novel titled Memoirs and Adventures of a Man of Quality. Manon Lescaut, published in 1731, was the seventh novel in this series and arguably the only work that brought him fame. Upon publishing *Manon Lescaut*, Abbé Prévost was recognized as the first writer to depict fateful love and fateful passion in a simple, unadorned style. Even today, many do not hesitate to rank this work among the greatest masterpieces celebrating the passion of love.
This novel also profoundly influenced other artistic fields. Notably, inspired by this work, French composer Jules Massenet composed the five-act opera Manon (1884), while Italian composer Giacomo Puccini’s four-act opera Manon Lescaut (1893) is exceptionally famous.
