Prévost d'Exiles, Antoine François (1697--1763)
Histoire du Chevalier Des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut. Premiere partie. (Seconde partie.)
A Amsterdam (Place), aux dépens de la Compagnie,, 1756.
2 vols ; 13.4 cm. (12º)
I: [4], 257, [1] p.
II: [4], 210 p.

Anonymous. By the Abbé Prévost. This work was originally published as volume VII of the Mémoires et avantures d'un homme de qualité, 1731 (1756 ed., q.v.) and promptly suppressed in France for its portrayal of the mutually destructive passion between the amoral courtesan Manon and her lover Des Grieux, who narrates the story. Despite being forbidden it circulated widely in pirated editions and an expanded and toned-down edition was published in 1753. Half-titles and running-titles reading 'Histoire De Manon Lescaut'. Engraved head-pieces.

Copy Notes Bound as volumes VII--VIII of a ten-volume set with the edition of the Mémoires et avantures d'un homme de qualité published in Amsterdam in the same year (q.v.) and an anonymous Suite de l'histoire du Chevalier Des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut, Amsterdam, 1762 (q.v.). Probably the set bought in Swallow Street (together with a copy of Dacier's Horace, q.v. and Richardson's Grandisson in French, q.v. for £2.0.0, in all 27 vols) 3 January 1794 (Jnl 2, p. 325). Thomas Boone is recorded at 91, Swallow Street in the 1802--1805 editions of Holden's annual list of coaches, waggons, carts, vessels, &c.

Binding C18th mottled calf, gilt-tooled spines, dark red morocco spine-labels, marbled edges and endpapers. Lettered as 'Tom. VII--VIII' of the Mémoires et avantures d'un homme de qualité (see above) but not actually published with it in an integral edition.

Reference Number 3782

Additional Names Thomas Boone; Histoire de Manon Lescaut