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Abbé Prévost

March 22, 2024

Antoine François Prévost d'Exiles (UK: /ˌpreɪvoʊ dɛɡˈziːl/ PRAY-voh deg-ZEEL, US: /preɪˌvoʊ -/ pray-VOH -⁠, French: [ɑ̃twan fʁɑ̃swa pʁevo dɛɡzil]; 1 April 1697 – 25 November 1763), usually known simply as the Abbé Prévost, was a French priest, author, and novelist.

Abbé Prévost
Portrait by Georg Friedrich Schmidt, 1745
Born
Antoine François Prévost d'Exiles

(1697-04-01)1 April 1697
Hesdin, Artois, France
Died25 November 1763(1763-11-25) (aged 66)
Courteuil, Picardy, France

Life and works edit

He was born at Hesdin, Artois, and first appears with the full name of Prévost d'Exiles, in a letter to the booksellers of Amsterdam in 1731. His father, Lievin Prévost, was a lawyer, and several members of the family had embraced the ecclesiastical estate. His happy childhood ended abruptly, when he lost his mother and his younger favorite sister at the age of 14. Prévost was educated at the Jesuit school of Hesdin, and in 1713 became a novice of the order in Paris, pursuing his studies at the same time at the college in La Flèche.[1]

At the end of 1716 he left the Jesuits to join the army, but soon tired of military life, and returned to Paris in 1719, apparently with the idea of resuming his novitiate. He is said to have travelled in the Netherlands about this time; in any case he returned to the army, this time with a commission. Some biographers have assumed that he suffered some of the misfortunes assigned to his hero Des Grieux. Whatever the truth, he joined the learned community of the Benedictines of St Maur, with whom he found refuge, he himself says, after the unlucky termination of a love affair. He took his vows at Jumièges in 1721 after a year's novitiate, and in 1726 took priest's orders at St Germer de Flaix. He spent seven years in various houses of the order, teaching, preaching and studying. In 1728 he was sent to the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, where he contributed to the Gallia Christiana, a work of historiographic documentation undertaken communally by the monks in continuation of the works of Denys de Sainte-Marthe [fr], 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 he left the abbey without leave (1728), and, learning that his superiors had obtained a lettre de cachet against him, fled to England.[1]

In London he acquired a wide knowledge of English history and literature, as can be seen in his writings. Before leaving the Benedictines Prévost had begun perhaps his most famous novel, Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité qui s'est retiré du monde, the first four volumes of which were published in Paris in 1728, and two years later at Amsterdam. In 1729 he left England for the Netherlands, where he began to publish (Utrecht, 1731) a novel, the material of which, at least, had been gathered in London, Le Philosophe anglais, ou Histoire de Monsieur Cleveland, fils naturel de Cromwell, écrite par lui-même, et traduite de l'anglais par l'auteur des Mémoires d'un homme de qualité (1731–1739, 8 vols., Amsterdam and Paris). A spurious fifth volume (Utrecht, 1734) contained attacks on the Jesuits; an English translation the same year ends with this volume.[1]

Meanwhile, during his residence at the Hague, he engaged on a translation of De Thou's Historia, 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 Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité. The seventh volume contained the famous Manon Lescaut, separately published in Paris in 1731 as Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut. The book was eagerly read, chiefly in pirated copies, being forbidden in France. In 1733 he left the Hague for London in company of a lady whose character, according to Prévost's enemies, was doubtful. In London he edited a weekly gazette on the model of Joseph Addison's Spectator, Le Pour et contre, which he continued to produce in collaboration with the playwright Charles-Hugues Le Febvre de Saint-Marc, with short intervals, until 1740.[1]

In the autumn of 1734 Prévost was reconciled with the Benedictines, and, returning to France, was received in the Benedictine monastery of La Croix-Saint-Leufroy in the diocese of Évreux to pass 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 [fr]. He continued to produce novels and translations from the English, and, with the exception of a brief exile (1741–1742) spent in Brussels and Frankfurt, he resided for the most part at Chantilly until his death, which took place suddenly while he was walking in the neighbouring woods. The cause of his death, the rupture of an aneurysm, is all that is definitely known. Stories of crime and disaster were related of Prévost by his enemies, and diligently repeated, but appear to be apocryphal.[1]

Prévost's other works include:

  • Le Doyen de Killerine, Killerine, histoire morale composée sur les mémoires d'une illustre famille d'Irlande (Paris, 1735; 2nd part, the Hague, 1739, 3rd, 4th and 5th parts, 1740)
  • Tout pour l'amour (1735), a translation of Dryden's tragedy
  • Histoire d'une Grecque moderne (Amsterdam [Paris] 2 vols., 1740)
  • Histoire de Marguerite d'Anjou (Amsterdam [Paris] 2 vols., 1740)
  • Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire de Malte (Amsterdam, 1741)
  • Campagnes philosophiques, ou mémoires ... contenant l'histoire de la guerre d'Irlande (Amsterdam, 1741)
  • Histoire de Guillaume le Conquérant (Paris, 1742)
  • Voyages du capitaine Robert Lade en differentes parties de l'Afrique, de l'Asie, et de l'Amerique (Paris, 1744), a fictional travel journal[2]
  • Histoire générale des voyages (15 vols., Paris, 1746–1759), continued by other writers
  • Manuel Lexique (Paris, 1750), continued by other writers
  • Translations (somewhat compacted) from Samuel Richardson: Pamela ou la Vertu récompensée (1741), Lettres anglaises ou Histoire de Miss Clarisse Harlovie (1751), from Richardson's Clarissa, and Nouvelles lettres anglaises, ou Histoire du chevalier Grandisson (Sir Charles Grandison, 1755).
  • Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire de la vertu (1762), from Mrs Sheridan's Memoires of Miss Sidney Bidulph
  • Histoire de la maison de Stuart (3 vols., 1740) from Hume's History of England to 1688
  • Le Monde moral, ou Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire du cœur humain (2 vols., Geneva, 1760)[1]

Modern editions edit

  • The standard edition of Prévost's works is Œuvres, dir. Jean Sgard, Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 8 vols., 1977–1986.
  • There have been many editions of Manon Lescaut of which the most recent are by Jean Sgard (Paris: GF-Flammarion, 1995) and Jean Goulemot (Livre de Poche, 2005). The modern English translation by Helen Waddell (Heritage Press, 1945 - with illustrations by Pierre Brissaud), is quite possibly, the most commonly seen English-language edition on the market.
  • Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité, Jean Sgard (ed.), Paris: Desjonquères, 1995.
  • There is also a separate edition of Cleveland (i. e., Le Philosophe anglais) by Jean Sgard and Philip Stewart, Paris: Desjonquères, 2003.
  • The only complete English translation of Cleveland, entitled The English Philosopher, or History of Mr. Cleveland, natural son of Cromwell, by Philip Stewart (2016)is available in open access on line: http://hdl.handle.net/10161/13014
  • Histoire d'une Grecque moderne, ed. Jean Sgard, Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 1989 (ISBN 2706103345).
  • The Greek Girl's Story, ed. and trans. Alan J. Singerman, University Park: Penn State UP, 2014.

In the works of others edit

In Hubert Monteilhet's novel Murder at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the protagonist plagiarizes Histoire d'une Grecque moderne as a practical joke on his obnoxious publisher.[3]

References edit

Notes
  1. ^ a b c d e f   One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Prévost, Antoine François". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 311–312.
  2. ^ Baker, Benjamin H. (29 June 2014). "Distant parts and the whole world: Intertextuality Pseudoworks in the Abbé Prévost's Voyages de Robert Lade". Cadernos de Literatura Comparada (in Portuguese) (30): 52. ISSN 1645-1112. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
  3. ^ Monteilhet, Hubert (1976). Murder at the Frankfurt book fair (1st ed.). Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. ISBN 0385034539. OCLC 2212700.
Bibliography
  • Jean Sgard, Prévost romancier, Paris: José Corti, 1968.
  • Jean Sgard, Vie de Prévost, Québec: Presses de l'université Laval, 2006.
  • Jean Sgard, Vingt études sur Prévost d'Exiles, Grenoble: Ellug, 1995
  • R. A. Francis, The abbé Prévost's First-person Narrators, Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1993.
  • Philip Stewart, "L’armature historique du Cleveland de Prévost,” Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 137 (1975), p. 121–139.
  • Philip Stewart, "Prévost et son Cleveland : essai de mise au point historique," Dix-Huitième Siècle, 7 (1975), p. 181–208, on line: https://www.persee.fr/doc/dhs_0070-6760_1975_num_7_1_1077
  • Philip Stewart,"Sur la conclusion du Cleveland de Prévost : l’influence de la suite apocryphe," Revue de Littérature Comparée, 51 (1977), p. 54–58.

External links edit

 
Wikisource has original works by or about:
Antoine François Prévost
 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Abbé Prévost.
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Antoine François Prévost.

March 22, 2024
abbé, prévost, antoine, françois, prévost, exiles, pray, zeel, pray, french, twan, fʁɑ, pʁevo, dɛɡzil, april, 1697, november, 1763, usually, known, simply, french, priest, author, novelist, portrait, georg, friedrich, schmidt, 1745bornantoine, françois, prévos. Antoine Francois Prevost d Exiles UK ˌ p r eɪ v oʊ d ɛ ɡ ˈ z iː l PRAY voh deg ZEEL US p r eɪ ˌ v oʊ pray VOH French ɑ twan fʁɑ swa pʁevo dɛɡzil 1 April 1697 25 November 1763 usually known simply as the Abbe Prevost was a French priest author and novelist Abbe PrevostPortrait by Georg Friedrich Schmidt 1745BornAntoine Francois Prevost d Exiles 1697 04 01 1 April 1697Hesdin Artois FranceDied25 November 1763 1763 11 25 aged 66 Courteuil Picardy France Contents 1 Life and works 2 Modern editions 3 In the works of others 4 References 5 External linksLife and works editHe was born at Hesdin Artois and first appears with the full name of Prevost d Exiles in a letter to the booksellers of Amsterdam in 1731 His father Lievin Prevost was a lawyer and several members of the family had embraced the ecclesiastical estate His happy childhood ended abruptly when he lost his mother and his younger favorite sister at the age of 14 Prevost was educated at the Jesuit school of Hesdin and in 1713 became a novice of the order in Paris pursuing his studies at the same time at the college in La Fleche 1 At the end of 1716 he left the Jesuits to join the army but soon tired of military life and returned to Paris in 1719 apparently with the idea of resuming his novitiate He is said to have travelled in the Netherlands about this time in any case he returned to the army this time with a commission Some biographers have assumed that he suffered some of the misfortunes assigned to his hero Des Grieux Whatever the truth he joined the learned community of the Benedictines of St Maur with whom he found refuge he himself says after the unlucky termination of a love affair He took his vows at Jumieges in 1721 after a year s novitiate and in 1726 took priest s orders at St Germer de Flaix He spent seven years in various houses of the order teaching preaching and studying In 1728 he was sent to the Abbey of Saint Germain des Pres Paris where he contributed to the Gallia Christiana a work of historiographic documentation undertaken communally by the monks in continuation of the works of Denys de Sainte Marthe fr 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 he left the abbey without leave 1728 and learning that his superiors had obtained a lettre de cachet against him fled to England 1 In London he acquired a wide knowledge of English history and literature as can be seen in his writings Before leaving the Benedictines Prevost had begun perhaps his most famous novel Memoires et aventures d un homme de qualite qui s est retire du monde the first four volumes of which were published in Paris in 1728 and two years later at Amsterdam In 1729 he left England for the Netherlands where he began to publish Utrecht 1731 a novel the material of which at least had been gathered in London Le Philosophe anglais ou Histoire de Monsieur Cleveland fils naturel de Cromwell ecrite par lui meme et traduite de l anglais par l auteur des Memoires d un homme de qualite 1731 1739 8 vols Amsterdam and Paris A spurious fifth volume Utrecht 1734 contained attacks on the Jesuits an English translation the same year ends with this volume 1 Meanwhile during his residence at the Hague he engaged on a translation of De Thou s Historia 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 Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut The book was eagerly read chiefly in pirated copies being forbidden in France In 1733 he left the Hague for London in company of a lady whose character according to Prevost s enemies was doubtful In London he edited a weekly gazette on the model of Joseph Addison s Spectator Le Pour et contre which he continued to produce in collaboration with the playwright Charles Hugues Le Febvre de Saint Marc with short intervals until 1740 1 In the autumn of 1734 Prevost was reconciled with the Benedictines and returning to France was received in the Benedictine monastery of La Croix Saint Leufroy in the diocese of Evreux to pass 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 fr He continued to produce novels and translations from the English and with the exception of a brief exile 1741 1742 spent in Brussels and Frankfurt he resided for the most part at Chantilly until his death which took place suddenly while he was walking in the neighbouring woods The cause of his death the rupture of an aneurysm is all that is definitely known Stories of crime and disaster were related of Prevost by his enemies and diligently repeated but appear to be apocryphal 1 Prevost s other works include Le Doyen de Killerine Killerine histoire morale composee sur les memoires d une illustre famille d Irlande Paris 1735 2nd part the Hague 1739 3rd 4th and 5th parts 1740 Tout pour l amour 1735 a translation of Dryden s tragedy Histoire d une Grecque moderne Amsterdam Paris 2 vols 1740 Histoire de Marguerite d Anjou Amsterdam Paris 2 vols 1740 Memoires pour servir a l histoire de Malte Amsterdam 1741 Campagnes philosophiques ou memoires contenant l histoire de la guerre d Irlande Amsterdam 1741 Histoire de Guillaume le Conquerant Paris 1742 Voyages du capitaine Robert Lade en differentes parties de l Afrique de l Asie et de l Amerique Paris 1744 a fictional travel journal 2 Histoire generale des voyages 15 vols Paris 1746 1759 continued by other writers Manuel Lexique Paris 1750 continued by other writers Translations somewhat compacted from Samuel Richardson Pamela ou la Vertu recompensee 1741 Lettres anglaises ou Histoire de Miss Clarisse Harlovie 1751 from Richardson s Clarissa and Nouvelles lettres anglaises ou Histoire du chevalier Grandisson Sir Charles Grandison 1755 Memoires pour servir a l histoire de la vertu 1762 from Mrs Sheridan s Memoires of Miss Sidney Bidulph Histoire de la maison de Stuart 3 vols 1740 from Hume s History of England to 1688 Le Monde moral ou Memoires pour servir a l histoire du cœur humain 2 vols Geneva 1760 1 Modern editions editThe standard edition of Prevost s works is Œuvres dir Jean Sgard Presses Universitaires de Grenoble 8 vols 1977 1986 There have been many editions of Manon Lescaut of which the most recent are by Jean Sgard Paris GF Flammarion 1995 and Jean Goulemot Livre de Poche 2005 The modern English translation by Helen Waddell Heritage Press 1945 with illustrations by Pierre Brissaud is quite possibly the most commonly seen English language edition on the market Memoires et aventures d un homme de qualite Jean Sgard ed Paris Desjonqueres 1995 There is also a separate edition of Cleveland i e Le Philosophe anglais by Jean Sgard and Philip Stewart Paris Desjonqueres 2003 The only complete English translation of Cleveland entitled The English Philosopher or History of Mr Cleveland natural son of Cromwell by Philip Stewart 2016 is available in open access on line http hdl handle net 10161 13014 Histoire d une Grecque moderne ed Jean Sgard Presses Universitaires de Grenoble 1989 ISBN 2706103345 The Greek Girl s Story ed and trans Alan J Singerman University Park Penn State UP 2014 In the works of others editIn Hubert Monteilhet s novel Murder at the Frankfurt Book Fair the protagonist plagiarizes Histoire d une Grecque moderne as a practical joke on his obnoxious publisher 3 References editNotes a b c d e f nbsp One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Chisholm Hugh ed 1911 Prevost Antoine Francois Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 22 11th ed Cambridge University Press pp 311 312 Baker Benjamin H 29 June 2014 Distant parts and the whole world Intertextuality Pseudoworks in the Abbe Prevost s Voyages de Robert Lade Cadernos de Literatura Comparada in Portuguese 30 52 ISSN 1645 1112 Retrieved 17 March 2019 Monteilhet Hubert 1976 Murder at the Frankfurt book fair 1st ed Garden City N Y Doubleday ISBN 0385034539 OCLC 2212700 BibliographyJean Sgard Prevost romancier Paris Jose Corti 1968 Jean Sgard Vie de Prevost Quebec Presses de l universite Laval 2006 Jean Sgard Vingt etudes sur Prevost d Exiles Grenoble Ellug 1995 R A Francis The abbe Prevost s First person Narrators Oxford Voltaire Foundation 1993 Philip Stewart L armature historique du Cleveland de Prevost Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 137 1975 p 121 139 Philip Stewart Prevost et son Cleveland essai de mise au point historique Dix Huitieme Siecle 7 1975 p 181 208 on line https www persee fr doc dhs 0070 6760 1975 num 7 1 1077 Philip Stewart Sur la conclusion du Cleveland de Prevost l influence de la suite apocryphe Revue de Litterature Comparee 51 1977 p 54 58 External links edit nbsp Wikisource has original works by or about Antoine Francois Prevost nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to Abbe Prevost nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Antoine Francois Prevost Works by abbe Prevost at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Abbe Prevost at Internet Archive Works by Abbe Prevost at LibriVox public domain audiobooks nbsp Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Abbe Prevost amp oldid 1176590496, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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