George Sand's Leone Leoni reverses the Abbe Prevost's Manon Lescaut and gives Manon's helpless amoral character to a man, Leoni, Juliette, the girl he seduces, becomes the exponent of undying, endless, forgiving love. p>The setting is the demimonde of Venice, and the plot is thick with sinister figures shose influence drags the miserable lovers down. The hapless Juliette has a champion, however, who is willing to go to any lengths to save her from her passion; his desparate act provides the final ironic flourish to a spellbinding tale.