Novel
Aurelien
Aurélien
Louis Aragon · 1944
Synopsis
In the Paris of the twenties, Aurélien Leurtillois, a veteran of the Great War who lives on his private income without knowing what to do with himself, meets Bérénice Morel, a married young woman who lives in the provinces. The first time he sees her, he finds her frankly ugly. Yet he falls in love with her, and their love takes shape amid the parties and extravagances of the post-war years.
Context
The novel was published by Gallimard in 1944; it is the fourth volume of the Le Monde réel cycle. Its author wrote it during the Occupation, and the book is said to have grown out of its first sentence, which came to him one day as he was walking in Nice. The action is set in the early twenties, in a Paris of parties and eccentricities. In English, Eithne Wilkins's translation is titled Aurelien, without an accent.
Who it is for
A long novel, broad in its writing, centred on a love story and on the Parisian society of its time.
Prizes and reception
The English version was published by Pilot Press in London in 1946, then by Duell, Sloan and Pearce in New York the following year.