Le Grand Meaulnes

I was really enjoying the feel of this book until the last twenty-or-so pages, when Alain-Fournier gathered together the strands he'd carefully laid in the preceding 180 pages and wove a cloth of infinitely finer emotional texture. Despite the revelation of "The Secret" having a certain melodramatic inevitability about it, the intensity of feeling is breathtakingly honest.

The tone of adolescent gaucheness is entirely in keeping with both the characters and the author, and what could have been an early example of a YA potboiler is raised to the level of genuine literature. The first section of Meaulnes at the wedding fête had a surrealistic air, the middle section a kind of fevered languor, the final section melancholic tragedy, all of show more it overlaid with a shimmering golden light. Instantly a favourite! show less

I knew nothing about Alain-Fournier when Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck strongly recommended to read this book. A feeble complaint that the book was in French was dismissed on the basis that all books should be read in their original languages. While this presents a formidable obstacle to an aspiring reader, specifically for this book she was quite right.

Finally, I braved Le Grand Meaulnes in French assisted by a fabulous reading of the novel by William Mesguich and I was not disappointed. The writing was inspired, almost transcending into poetry at times, the music of the words adding palpably to the emotions overwhelming the children in the story.

The book is a Bildungsroman of a kind but its unique attribute is the feeling of loss show more accompanying the graduation into adulthood. Some intangible property of childhood, some magical feature of life is forever lost when one regrettably grows up. The wonderous celebration, 'la fete étrange' once witnessed, can never be relived, can never be returned. One can look to substitute this wonder with love or with friendship but 'la fete étrange' of the childhood is no more.

Not all aspects of the story will be appreciated by contemporary readers. Perched on an ivory tower of our present knowledge and understanding of the world, we cannot help but look down on some trivial psychological mistakes of an aspiring writer of the age before modernism. It's fitting to not say anything else about the book and just thank once more the person who insistently recommended it.

Eva, a troubled and an almost silent adolescent in Zedelghem chapter of Cloud Atlas reappears as an unlikely mentor in Black Swan Green. It is there that she mentions Le Grand Meaulnes as an absolute must read. Everything is connected, a thin thread attaches this reader nostalgic for his own lost childhood to David Mitchell and his characters, to François and his great friend Meaulnes, to Alain-Fournier himself, who never got to write another book. He was killed in the first month of the war. show less

Le Grand Meaulnes is a romantic coming-of-age tale, a story of friendship, love, and loss. When Augustin Meaulnes arrives at a small French school, he is befriended by François Seurel, the 15-year-old son of the headmaster. François looks up to Meaulnes, who is two years older and both a dreamer and a rebel. The boys nickname him "Le Grande Meaulnes" which the translator explains is similar to the English phrase, "good old Meaulnes." One day, in an act of bravado, Meaulnes gets hold of a carriage, heads off on his own, gets lost, and ultimately finds himself at a very strange wedding feast. There he encounters the most beautiful woman he's ever seen: Yvonne de Galais. The feast breaks up rather abruptly when the groom's fiancee show more decides not to go through with the wedding. In the confusion, Meaulnes is separated from Yvonne, and he vows to find her again. He embarks on a quest of sorts, leaving François behind to finish his studies. The search for Yvonne takes a circuitous path involving François, a number of other colorful characters, and unexpected connections with the groom from the wedding feast.

Le Grand Meaulnes was Alain-Fournier's first novel. Sadly, he was killed in World War I in 1914, just two years after publication. His writing is beautiful; I was instantly transported back to 1890s rural France, where women dried their linen by draping it over the bushes, and men engaged in vigorous debate in the local cafe. The weather and scenery were described in vivid detail, further immersing me in the world of François and his friend Meaulnes:
And now, to swoop down from a hill-top into the hollows as if on wings; to see a blurred landscape far ahead divide and make an aisle for you and burst into leaf as you passed; to slip through a village taking everything in at a glance ... Only in dreams had I been wafted on such delightful flights. (p. 139)

While there were parts of this book I found a bit bizarre, and others that were slow-moving, overall the writing was so wonderful that I enjoyed it a great deal. show less

A Quoi bon; (whats the point) is what the woman said to Alain Fournier, when he finally plucked up the courage to speak to her, after following her around Paris for days as a very young man. She later added on another occasion "Nous sommes deux enfants, nous avons fait une folie." Alain Fournier never gave up on Yvonne de Quièvrecourt who unwittingly became the inspiration for his first novel which is a classic of French literature. This moment when the young author discovered the pangs of an unrequited love is translated into a novel that captures the wonder, the fantasy, the childlike innocence of adolescent love. The Grand Meaulnes took Fournier eight years to complete and it was first published in serial form in 1913.

Le Grand show more Meaulnes is actually the leading character in the novel: Augustine Meaulnes. He is 17 years old when he is enrolled in a school of mixed age groups in a small provincial town. He is bigger and older than the other boys and soon becomes the boy who everyone wants to know, including Francois who is the son of the head teacher and who tells the story. Meaulnes is disappointed when he is not selected to accompany the head teacher on a trip to the local station to pick up the grand parents. He finds another horse and carriage in town and embarks on a race to get to the station. He gets lost in the winter fog and eventually deep in the countryside sees a light through the trees. He stumbles across fields to find a tumble down chateau which is playing host to a wedding party. There are adults and children dressed in clothes from a previous century and Meaulnes is invited to join in. The bride never arrives but Meaulnes sees and falls in love with Yvonne the bridegrooms (Frantz) sister. Altogether he is away from school for three days and when he finally returns he seems a disturbed young man, obsessed with trying to locate the mysterious chateau in the woods. He eventually takes Francois into his confidence and together they plan to solve the mystery and find Yvonne. This completes the first of the three parts to the romance and the story continues with Meaulnes and Francois search for Yvonne with the added complication of Frantz still in love with the woman who jilted him.

Fournier based his novel very much on his own upbringing. His father was the head teacher at a small school and the sights and sounds of the life of the pupils in a small provincial town are atmospherically portrayed and then suddenly the reader is plunged headlong into Meaulnes adventure and we are in the land of mystery and fantasy and a bit like Meaulnes we do not want it to end. The wedding party seems full of young adults and children and there is magic in the air, there is also romance and there is innocence, but this must change when Meaulnes finally finds his way back to school. He is determined to chase his dreams but as he grows up and searches for love innocence is left behind and choices must be made. The final part of the book which tells the story of Meaulnes relationship with Yvonne is steeped in melancholia, the characters are searching for things lost or for what they never had and the melancholia turns to sadness and sorrow. I found it a deeply affecting book. Why this novel works so well is that even when Fournier is working through the machinations of his plot he still manages to turn the readers attention back to the magical scenes of the first part: for example there is a party thrown to bring Meaulnes, Yvonne and Frantz back together, it is held in a country estate beside the river and the woods and an atmosphere is created similar to the wedding party and Meaulnes even plunges into the woods, but this time he is angered by the actions of Yvonne and her family and the magic is dissipated: it is if his more childlike self was for a moment within reach.

The novel is by no means faultless, there are coincidences that serve to hold the plot together and people appear and disappear it seems at the whim of the author, but nothing can take away the sense of wonder that Fournier creates with his beautiful text, his character may be innocent even puerile, but they live and breathe in Fournier lovely book. A romance, but lodged in realism, an innocence that clings to the characters, a purity that negates the need for any talk about sex. That Fournier manages to pull this off and make it a pleasure for adults to read and read again is a triumph and so five stars. show less

This is a story about the unreality of first love, positioning it as the dying gasp of childhood meeting the first blush of adulthood. The sense of unreality that is attached to it, the intensity of its romanticism that makes it forever cling to memory, arises from a final tie to childhood's vision of the world as wonder. It is the last time we experience something new through the eyes of a child, the last sense of wonder once felt even in contemplating such minor things as butterflies balanced on leaves. First love is adorned with that aura, and there is a magic to it, but it is an aura that must be shed if true love between adults is to follow.

Meulnes is a victim of that first love, and clings to its aura. It is represented here as show more setting: the place where he meets Yvonne is almost a fairyland divorced from reality. By the novel's end this has been dispensed with, the gauze veil torn away. Romanticism has given way to realism, and this is the novel's poignancy.

The plot suffers. Multiple coincidences pile up about who knows who from where, and awkwardly kept secrets are overly convenient for producing the required misunderstandings and errors. The magic is in the portrayal, not in the storyline, although its veering away from predictability may surprise. This novel captured the heart of a generation of France, a dying echo from the past written by an author killed too soon in World War One, just at the time when Proust was introducing the future. That too suits its message. The past must be surrendered, and this rite of passage comes as much from within - from a shift in how we view the world and one another - as from without. show less

Henri-Alban Fournier, writing under the pseudonym Alain-Fournier, penned only one novel, but it was a work that would secure his place in the pantheon of French literature. "Le Grand Meaulnes," published in 1913 and often translated as "The Lost Estate," is a haunting and evocative tale of adolescence, love, and the elusive nature of memory.

François Seurel, the quiet and perceptive son of a rural French schoolmaster, tells the tale. The introduction of a new, gregarious student, Augustin Meaulnes, who is soon dubbed "Le Grand Meaulnes" (The Great Meaulnes) by his peers, permanently changes his peaceful life. Meaulnes is mysterious and daring, with a captivating personality that both captivates and terrifies the more sober show more François.

The novel's turning point is when Meaulnes, while traveling on a whim, discovers a mysterious, run-down estate where an odd and enchanted costume party is taking place. He meets the stunning and ethereal Yvonne de Galais there, amid the celebrations, and he falls madly in love with her in that brief instant. Meaulnes will spend the remainder of the book frantically attempting to rediscover the "lost estate," which, with its aura of enchantment and diminished grandeur, becomes a symbol of a perfect, almost dreamlike happiness.

The story is a gripping combination of fairy tale elements and realism; however one that is rooted in a concrete reality thanks to the realistic portrayal of the French countryside's rustic simplicity. Nonetheless, the novel is given a sense of the fantastical by the main scene at the enigmatic fête, complete with children in costume and an atmosphere of unearthly revelry. The book's timeless appeal stems from this duality, which illustrates how young imagination can elevate the commonplace to the extraordinary.

Fundamentally, "The Lost Estate" is a profound reflection on what adolescence is all about. It captures exactly the strong feelings, the passionate friendships, and the desire for adventure that characterize this developmental stage. The universal search for a lost paradise—a period of unadulterated potential that can never be fully reclaimed—is powerfully symbolized by Meaulnes's quest for the lost estate and his romanticized love for Yvonne. show less

The mysterious girl, the perfect chateau, and the longing of adolescent fantasy. A fable about prisoners of childhood, an earnest longing and the soft cool winds blowing on the provincial village of central France.

I'm doing a double take on this book as few weeks after I've had finished it, the feeling of the estate, the summer winds, the road in the forest, the justling of the serving cups dissipates like mists across every corner of my mind. I can taste the summer, the memories of central France and the obsession with lost youth so clearly now after having settled with the book for a while. I might change my rating for this book actually because when I close my eyes I can still see the curtains justling from the wind blowing from the show more tall windows, some kids' brisk runs on the corridor, the mysterious estate that lost its lusture. Lost love, lost dreams and lost years, the misfortune of unmatched destinies of unfortunate coincidences, like that between Meaulnes, Yvonne de Galais, Frantz de Galais and his runaway bride. show less