emma reviewed Manon Lescaut by Antoine François Prévost
That was painful
2 stars
Content warning Maybe sort of spoilers
#ReadingOpera I suppose I can recognise why a different time might fall into raptures over this book, valuing tragedy as a sign of seriousness and all. I spent most of it in various degrees of being pissed off with des Grieux. We see Manon primarily through his eyes, she does very little and what she does is far from the sweetness and perfection he accords her. If the author intended that, to heighten des Grieux's tragedy - and for all that the English title and operas focus on her, it is entirely his story - that level of self-reflection was not clear. Perhaps most interesting to this modern reader was how the classism which drives so much of the plot is taken for granted, a normal and accepted part of life, and not commented on until the end. The de rigeur sexism and objectification of women doesn't even get that much recognition. At least the operas have music.