PREVOST, ANTOINE FRANCOIS ) , French author and novelist, was born at Hesdin, Artois, on April 1, 1697. He was educated at the Jesuit school of Hesdin, and in 1713 be came a novice of the order in Paris, pursuing his studies at the same time at the college of La Fleche. At the end of 1716 he left the Jesuits to join the army, but he soon tired of life in barracks, and returned to Paris in 1719 with the idea, apparently, of resum ing his novitiate. He is said to have travelled in Holland about this time ; in any case, however, he returned to the army, this time with a commission. He joined in 1719-20 the learned com munity of the Benedictines of St. Maur, with whom he found refuge, he himself says, after the unlucky termination of a love affair. He took the vows at Jumieges in 1721 after a year's novitiate, and received in 1726 priest's orders at St. Germer de Flaix. He resided for seven years in various houses of the order, teaching, preaching and studying. In 1728 he was at the abbey of St. Germain-des-Pres, Paris, where he was engaged on the Gallia christiana, the learned work undertaken by the monks in continua tion of the works of Denys de Sainte-Marthe, who had been a member of their order. His restless spirit made him seek from the Pope a transfer to the easier rule of Cluny; but without waiting for the brief, he left the abbey without leave (1728), and, learn ing that his superiors had obtained a lettre de cachet against him, fled to England.
In London he acquired considerable knowledge of English his tory and literature, traceable throughout his writings, and he has left an interesting account of English life in his famous memoirs.
are partly Paris and partly Utrecht). Meanwhile during his resi dence at The Hague, he translated the Historia of De Thou, and, relying on the popularity of his first book, published at Amsterdam a Suite in three volumes, forming volumes v., vi. and vii. of the original Memoires et aventures d'un homme de qualite. The seventh volume contained the famous Manon Lescaut, separately published in Paris in 1731 as Les Aventures du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut, par Monsieur D. . . . The book was eagerly read, chiefly in pirated copies, as it was forbidden in France. In 1733 he left The Hague for London, and Miss M. Robertson gives an entry showing that he was in prison in London in December on a charge of fraud.
In the autumn of 1734 Prevost was reconciled with the Bene dictines, and, returning to France, passed through a new, though brief, novitiate. In 1735 he was dispensed from residence in a monastery by becoming almoner to the prince de Conti, and in 1754 obtained the priory of St. Georges de Gesnes. He con tinued to produce novels and translations from the English, and, with the exception of a brief exile (1741-1742) spent in Brussels and Frankfort, he resided for the most part at Chantilly until his death on Dec. 23, 1763.
For the bibliography of Prevost's works, which presents many complications, and for documentary evidence of the facts of his life see H. Harrisse, L'Abbe Prevost (1896) ; also a thesis (1898) by V. Schroeder. A critical edition by M. Robertson of the 5th vol. of the Memoires et Aventures dealing with Prevost's adventures in was published in 1927.