The Greek Girl's Story

A critical edition of a classic 18th-century novel

Abbe Prevost author Alan J Singerman translator

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Pennsylvania State University Press

Published:15th Jan '15

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

This paperback is available in another edition too:

The Greek Girl's Story cover

In The Greek Girl's Story, a French ambassador's obsession with a Greek concubine leads to a complex exploration of love, power, and societal expectations.

This English translation presents Abbé Prévost’s 1740 novel The Greek Girl's Story, offering readers a fresh perspective on a classic work. With a foreword by Jean Sgard, the edition includes comprehensive notes and appendices that enhance the reader's understanding of the text. Alan Singerman's translation is the first reliable, stand-alone version of Prévost’s literary masterpiece, Histoire d’une Grecque moderne, making it accessible to a broader audience.

Singerman's translation is based on his acclaimed 1990 French edition, which has been praised for its critical insights. The new edition features a complete critical apparatus, including an updated introduction, notes, appendices, and bibliography, reflecting recent scholarship and offering valuable context on themes such as Orientalism. This robust framework enriches the reading experience and encourages deeper engagement with the text.

At the heart of The Greek Girl's Story is a complex narrative that intertwines the lives of a French ambassador and a young Greek concubine named Théophé. The story explores themes of obsession, virtue, and power dynamics within a historical context. As the ambassador becomes increasingly infatuated with Théophé, their relationship unfolds with ambiguity and tension, ultimately leading to tragic consequences. This novel serves not only as a tale of love and desire but also as a critique of societal norms and expectations, making it a timeless piece of literature.

“This superb new translation by Alan J. Singerman, one of the foremost specialists on Abbé Prévost, constitutes the first scholarly edition in English of Histoire d’une Grecque moderne. This remarkable novel—an early, paradigmatic example of unreliable first-person narration, one of the greatest novels ever written on the theme of jealousy, and an outstanding example of eighteenth-century Orientalism—will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers. Singerman's introduction and notes are models of erudite scholarship and critical lucidity.”

—Guillaume Ansart, Indiana University


“At one time a Benedictine monk, Antoine-François Prévost (1697–1763) was a man of dubious morality fascinated by scandal and the struggle between virtue and desire. As a novelist, he wrote about enigmatic historical and fictional characters, exploring their hypocrisy, madness, and disgrace. His Histoire d’une Grecque moderne (1740), based on the actual experiences of a French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 18th century, may not be as well known as his sentimental novel Manon Lescaut (1731), but it is nevertheless a classic literary masterpiece that well deserves this outstanding new translation. . . . [This] is the first accurate, single-volume translation and critical edition of the novel. Singerman provides a fascinating introduction, extensive footnotes, and a highly reliable English rendering of Prévost’s powerful narrative, which is clearly far more than just a roman à clef. Summing up: Essential.”

—C. B. Kerr Choice

ISBN: 9780271063928

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 18mm

Weight: 363g

248 pages