Abbé Prévost

Antoine François Prévost was a French novelist who moved between the Benedictine order and the world outside it more than once, fleeing to England and Holland when his position became untenable. He wrote prolifically and translated Richardson into French, but survives through one short book, Manon Lescaut (1731), which was condemned and burned on publication and later set to music by both Massenet and Puccini.