Prévost d'Exiles, Antoine-François, Abbé

known as Abbé Prévost

born April 1, 1697, Hesdin, France

died Nov. 25, 1763, Chantilly

French novelist.

From an early age Prévost alternated between enlistments in the army and entries into the religious life, which he eventually fled in 1728. Subsequent years were marked by numerous love affairs and debt. His fame rests entirely on one work

Manon Lescaut (1731), a sentimental novel about a young man of good family who ruins his life for a courtesan, which became the basis of two famous operas, Jules Massenet's Manon and Giacomo Puccini's Manon Lescaut.

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▪ French author

born , April 1, 1697, Hesdin, Fr.

died Nov. 25, 1763, Chantilly

 prolific French novelist whose fame rests entirely on one work—Manon Lescaut (1731; in full Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut; “Story of the Chevalier of Grieux and of Manon Lescaut”).

      Originally published as the final installment of a seven-volume novel, Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité qui s'est retiré du monde (1728–31; “Memories and Adventures of a Man of Quality Who Has Retired from the World”), Prévost's Manon Lescaut is the basis of the operas Manon, by Jules Massenet, and Manon Lescaut, by Giacomo Puccini. A classic example of the 18th-century novel of feeling, Manon Lescaut tells the story of a young man of good family who ruins his life for a courtesan.

      From an early age, Prévost displayed many of the weaknesses characteristic of the hero of his most famous work. Two enlistments in the army alternated with two entries into the novitiate of the Society of Jesus, from which he was dismissed in 1721. In that year he took vows as a Benedictine monk and in 1726 was ordained a priest. In 1728 he fled to England. One of his numerous love affairs caused him to lose his job there as a tutor and to go to Holland in 1730. In 1735 Prévost returned to England to escape his Dutch creditors and was briefly imprisoned in London for forgery. After secretly returning to France, he was reconciled with the Roman Catholic church (although he may have been a Protestant during his exile).

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