Manon Lescaut

Though it is commonly believed that money cannot buy love, Prévost explores how financial success affects romantic happiness. Des Grieux believes that money is the secret to keeping Manon happy, though he claims “[n]o girl was ever less attached to money than she was” (43). Des Grieux, however, is clearly obsessed with money; when he is not talking about how much he loves Manon, he is talking about money—who has it, how to get it, and how to keep it.

Furthermore, as Angela Scholar points out in her introduction to the text, the language of money is woven throughout the text “in the form of metaphors of paying and repaying, credit and profit, borrowing, computation, and recompense” (xvi). This is perhaps another reason the story was greatly criticized upon publication: Men of good breeding were not supposed to think or talk about money. Only commoners were concerned with it. Prévost’s story, however, reveals the many ways in which financial security intertwines with romance and love. Manon rightly notes that “one can[not] be truly loving when one is short of bread” (47-48), and this base consideration appalls Des Grieux despite its truth.