Abbe Prevost

Antoine François Prévost, known as Abbé Prévost, was a French author and novelist best remembered for his 1731 novel 'Manon Lescaut', which remains a classic of French literature. His life was as dramatic as his fiction, including stints as a soldier, a Benedictine monk, and an exile in England and Holland. He died in 1763 while working on a history of the voyages of discovery.