The Best Book I Read in 2022

So far this year I’ve read 36 books, my goal annually is to aim for 50 but it’s been a few years since I was successful to achieve that. I try to switch up genres and time period settings, writing styles and authors. I’m not a critic and read only for entertainment or personal curiosity. This is a blog post to discuss one of the books I’ve read this year that has stuck with me the most, stayed on my mind and I hope to re-read at some point

There is a ballet and also an opera based on this book (each are called “Manon”), it’s what inspired me to read the story.  The music is good in both but it seems like I was really missing details in the plot. I found the ebook online for free and got an audiobook version as well.  The novel was written in 1731 by Antoine François Prévost and the book was called: Manon Lescaut. This blog post may have some spoilers, sorry! Google says it’s the last part of a series, and it’s also called other titles in French-  Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux, et de Manon Lescaut and Mémoires et aventures d’un homme de qualité.. but what I read was a translation called Manon Lescaut and I’m familiar with none of the prequels

The story is set in olden times France, it’s about a guy called Des Grieux falling in love and simping for an unfortunate orphan who is sex trafficked, her named Manon. Women didn’t have many opportunities or protection back then, and sadly Manon was not a deeply developed character beyond this.  Her innocent beauty seems to be her main quality, and she attracted the attention of many weird men,  some of who were rich and powerful. The character telling the story loves and cares about Manon despite her low position and works to help her out of many legal scrapes and scandals.  This book is more than a hundred years older than Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables and definitely brought to mind Fantine and Jean Valjean (thankfully there is no child). Manon does treat DesGrieux kind of badly and through the influence of others sometimes scams him and ends up disappearing. There are exciting escapes from the law. One of my favorite parts is when Manon gets banished to “the new world” not yet known as America (they just call it Louisiana) apparently that’s where people were sent away for being an unrepentant prostitute. In the end Des Grieux decides to follow her there anyway and hmmm lets just say the finale is not very happy at all

I’m always interested in hearing recommendations what to read. And here is a YouTube link to a clip of a ballet performance of Manon https://youtu.be/LryyMf74p40