Manon Lescaut

The hero is a rogue and the heroine a courtesan, noted Montesquieu after reading Manon Lescaut. In fact, Manon is deceived by the Chevalier des Grieux, spends two weeks realizing that he has no resources, then fervently welcomes his marriage plans, and leaves him in distress by denouncing him to his family. She accepts the lavish proposals of a general farmer from whom she will extract sixty thousand livres in less than two years... then lives again with des Grieux. And so on. A rogue? A courtesan? These nouns are not even more disgraceful when applied to Manon and des Grieux, because one is rather tempted to wonder how a rogue can remain honest, a courtesan can preserve her purity. Frailty and corruption all together: in this impossible combination lies perhaps the very mystery of this clear story.