PREVOST D'EXILES, prei've/ di'ig'zW. AN TOINE FRANcOIS (1697-1763). A French novelist, best known as the author of Iiamm Lescaut ((Ix .) • Prevost born at Hesdin, April 1, 1697. His father was a petty official. Antoine had been by turns a student of the Jesuits, a novice among them, a soldier (1713-14), a .Iesuit, a soldier again, and, as unhappy end of a too tender a Benedictine (1721-28). Then we hear of him as wanted by the police for a libel on the Duke of Tuscany and for alleged breaches of conventual discipline. It was a fate ful period in the history of the French novel when Pri".vost sought refuge in England (1728). where he remained for two or three years, and, after a hasty and not voluntary departure, returned thither in 1733 famous as author of the 11(noircs d'un homme de qualitd, the seventh volume of which is his greatest and shortest novel, Manon Lescaut (1731). Prevost remained once more two years in England, viewed askance by the Huguenot colony, and so thnmn more with the English. the result of which appears in CI('re land, on le philosophe anglais (S vols., 1731-38); Les memoires de .11. de ilontml; and an Irish novel. Lc doyen de Wine (6 vols.. 1735-40), which he followed after his return by a story based on the life of the fascinating Greek girl, Mademoiselle Alsse, a then reigning Pariiian celebrity. He died at Chantilly, November 23, 1763. Prevost wrote also two other novels, JUmoircs pour serrir d l'histoire de Matte, and .1/6noircs (run hounefe haulm('; hut the latter years of his life were devoted almost wholly to translations of the novels of Richardson, begun in 1742, by which he influenced literature more even than by Manon Lcscant, propagating an in disc•riminating interest in England and the Eng lish• whose democratic spirit inspired him to warm enthusiasm. Thus he helped to shake French confidence and pride of social and intel lectual superiority. and to pave the way both for a cosmopolitan literary spirit and for Rousseau.
Most of his novels are exotic in scene and in ethics, extravagantly romantic in structure, and with, a new intensity of sentiment in depicting the tragedy of middle life.
His average work closely resembles the lesser novels of Defoe, but Manon is the proclamation in fiction of the "divine right of passion." It affected radically the novels of Rousseau and Diderot, and can be traced through Hugo, and Dumas, and George Sand, to the present day. Prevost himself tells us that the story is "a ter rible example of the force of pos.-don." The author does not preach• though his sympathy seems to go out toward his attractive sinner. The book is a portrayal of a coquette whose love of dress and finery as well as her passion for her chevalier are in desperate conflict with the miseries of life, to which contribute a pack of scoundrels, including her own brother. The style of this epoch-making work is more natural than that in any other of the author's books. In Richardson Prevost found a fuller expression of himself than he had yet been able to attain. Pamela. in English began to appear in 1740. Prevost recognized its value instantly, and in 1742 his French version appeared in London. The English Clrn•is.sn is of 1748-49, the French of 1751; Richardson begins Grandismz in 1753: Prevost, while awaiting its completion. busies himself in an attempt to spread English and German literature in France through founding with Rousseau a Journal (Wringer. Prevost's work was that of editor, as much as translator, and Richardson greatly profited by the process. Pre vost's tEurres choisies appeared in 39 volumes (Amsterdam, 1783-85; 1806). Of Manors Leseaut the editions are many. Consult: Texte, Jean Jacques Rousseau and the Cosmopolitan Spirit in Literature, trans. (New York, 1899) ; Sainte Bettye, Portraits vols. i.-iii. (2d ed., Paris, 1804) : id.. du lundi, vol. ix. (ib., 1857-62) ; Harisse. L'Abbe Prerost (Paris, 1890).