Kobunsha New Translations of the Classics Library Manon Lescaut (Manon Lescaut)

Manon Lescaut has been celebrated as the masterpiece of fiction that laid the foundation for the French tradition of romantic psychological novels. The Chevalier des Grieux, a seventeen-year-old scion from a well-to-do regional aristocratic family who grew up wanting for nothing, falls in love with a young woman he sees alighting from a carriage, and then flees to Paris with her the following day. This young woman, whose enchantment transforms the fate of Des Grieux, is none other than Manon Lescaut.
 
When this book was published in France in 1731, it is said that people flocked to buy the book “as though rushing to the site of a fire.” At the time, the book was instantly banned for the salaciousness of its contents. Nonetheless, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau all read the book with enthusiasm, apparently intrigued by its appeal. With the advent of the nineteenth century and the Age of Romanticism, nothing stood in the way of Manon worship anymore. The poet, Alfred de Musset, paid tribute to the character and said, “Manon … si vivante et si vraiment humaine [Manon … So living and so human and so true!],” while Guy de Maupassant asserted that, “Manon, c'est la femme tout entière, telle qu'elle a toujours été, telle qu'elle est, et telle qu'elle sera toujours [Manon is completely, entirely woman, as she always has been; as she is and as she always will be!]” The story of Manon has been treated dramatically and operatically, and in the twentieth century it was made into several films, resulting in the name of its heroine becoming well-known worldwide.
 
Famous though she is, Manon was quickly labeled “wicked woman.” She has been regarded as a femme fatale who bewitches and confounds the life of an earnest youth, that is, "Woman of the fate" and "Devilish woman".
 
However, is this true? Is this not a one-sided condemnation based on a male-centric reading of the text? More fundamentally, is the tale of Des Grieux and Manon still worth reading in twenty-first century Japan, where the culture of romance is said to be generally declining? I believe that it should certainly be read (of course, otherwise I would not have bothered to translate it.) On the other hand, this is a novel written by an eighteenth-century Frenchman, and its setting is astoundingly different from the current reality. It gives us a visceral sense of the world as it existed under the aristocratic system of France’s ancient regime. It inspires us to think about history and society as we enjoy the current world. This is its real value as a novel.
 
Moreover, in this context of the ancient regime, the image of these two youths being steadily pursued is fraught with constant suspense, and its outcome is completely unpredictable. The thrill of not knowing what the future may hold – is this not eminently contemporary? Of course, I do not mean that anyone has had such an experience. As the author, Antoine François Prévost, points out in his foreword, “Or, l'expérience n'est point un avantage qu'il soit libre à tout le monde de se donner; elle dépend des situations différentes où l'on se trouve placé par la fortune. Il ne reste donc que l'exemple qui puisse servir de règle à quantité de personnes dans l'exercice de la vertu [Now experience is not in everyone’s power to give; it depends upon the circumstances in which an individual is placed. We must then fall back upon example to regulate our acts in the exercise of virtue.].” This novel has by no means lost its meaning as a paramount example. In an age where romantic love is waning, its value can only increase.
 
I will refrain from saying anything about the difficulties involved in translation. Reader, I merely ask that you enjoy the book and the thrills that it offers.
 

(Written by Kan Nozaki, Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology / 2018)