Manon Lescaut

This section transitions from Renoncour’s perspective to Des Grieux’s. His story begins when he was just a teenager, studying “philosophy at Amiens” (11). He was well known for “leading a life so prudent and well ordered that [his] teachers held [him] up as an example to the entire college,” though he acknowledges that this is his “nature” and not because of any “strenuous effort” on his part (11). He is destined for the church, “a career in the Order of Malta” (148), a religious order whose members took vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity. Des Grieux uses the title “Chevalier Des Grieux” in anticipation of his membership with the order. Most members, including Des Grieux, are also members of the nobility.

Right before returning home for the holidays, Des Grieux encounters Manon for the first time while walking with his good friend, Tiberge. She is being sent to a convent against her will, and Des Grieux is so overcome by her beauty, “inflamed all of a sudden to the point of rapture” (13), that he vows to rescue her and “devote [his] life to delivering her from her parents’ tyranny, and to making her happy” (14).