Manon Lescaut

The story opens in the country home of Manon and her brother, who have been brought up by a religious father. The father insists that Manon shall enter a convent for life. He compels her to go. But on the way, stopping at an inn at Amisne, she meets the Chevalier Des Grieux. It is a case of love at first sight between them. Manon and Des Grieux escape the vigilance of her traveling companions and flee to Paris. The Baron De Bretigny, a rich nobleman, occupies a residence adjoining their home in Paris. He sees the lovely Manon and, attracted by her beauty, makes her acquaintance. Failing in his attempts to separate her from Des Grieux, the Baron finally writes to Des Grieux's father, an old friend of his in Picardy. The father, objecting to his son's choice, sends his elder brother and two servants to Paris, who takes Des Grieux away by force. The Baron then bribes Manon's maid, who tells her mistress that Des Grieux has deserted her, and, as he does not return, the heartbroken girl believes he has left her forever. Alone in Paris without friends or money she is finally compelled to accept the protection of the scheming Baron. Meantime the Chevalier, believing that Manon no longer cares for him, is persuaded by his faithful friend. Abbe Tiberge, to renounce the world and become an abbe. He goes to Paris and begins his studies at St. Sulpice. But Manon is still the unforgotten object of his affections. Through the false maid Manon discovers the trick by which the Baron separated her from her lover. She leaves the Baron's house and visits the Chevalier at St. Sulpice, where, after a pathetic and emotional scene she induces him to go with her. Manon's brother, Lescaut, a dissolute and unprincipled guardsman in the army of King Louis XV, is hired by the Baron to attack the Chevalier and bring Manon back to him. Ruffians engaged by Lescaut carry out this plan. But after a furious street combat the Chevalier escapes. Manon, however, is taken to the Baron's house and kept prisoner. Here the Chevalier follows her and alone and unaided rescues her after a struggle with the perfidious Baron. The lovers leave Paris and establish themselves in a suburban villa, where Lescaut comes and convinces them that he had no part in the plot. Their financial circumstances go from bad to worse. Des Grieux finds himself beset by creditors and is finally persuaded by his false friend, Lescaut, to gamble at a fashionable club in Paris. The Baron is present, induces the Chevalier to p