Novel
Nobody's Boy
Sans famille
Hector Malot · 1878
Synopsis
Rémi, a foundling, has grown up with Mère Barberin in a village. Torn away from her, he sets out on the roads of France with Vitalis, a travelling musician, his troupe of dogs, including Capi, and the monkey Joli-Cœur, and earns his living giving shows from town to town. Through his trials, he befriends Mattia, a young musician, and sets out in search of his family, a quest that takes him as far as England.
Context
The novel was published in 1878 and is regarded as its author's best book. Critics link it to the tradition of melodrama, whose situations it takes up, and read in it a tale of initiation and quest, nourished by picaresque images and by characters taken from the margins of society, who find their dignity in wandering. It has been adapted many times, for television, for the cinema and as a Japanese animated series.
Who it is for
A long adventure novel, often abridged for young readers; the complete paperback edition runs to more than four hundred pages.
Prizes and reception
A classic of children's literature; Adrian de Bruyn retranslated it into English in 2007 under the title Alone in the World.
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