Amidst a revival of interest in the novels of the abbé Prévost, this study addresses some of the interpretive issues that are being raised concerning his work, namely what intellectual, moral and aesthetic meaning should we seek in works that were designed as entertainments, and should we persist in rating Manon Lescaut more highly than the rest of Prévost’s output?  The narrative strategies and types of distortion inherent in each of Prévost’s narrators are examined. More general observations are made on the mechanics of Prévost’s narration such as the deceptive rhetorical...