Novel
The Lost Estate
Le Grand Meaulnes
Alain-Fournier · 1913
Opening lines
Il arriva chez nous un dimanche de novembre 189...
He came to our house one Sunday in November 189...
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
François Seurel, the son of schoolteachers, is about fifteen when a tall boy of seventeen, Augustin Meaulnes, arrives as a boarder at his parents' home, at the school of Sainte-Agathe. One day Meaulnes leaves by carriage to fetch visitors at the station, gets lost and does not return until three days later. He has found an unknown estate where a strange celebration was being held, peopled by children in costume, and met a young girl, Yvonne de Galais. Asleep on the way back, he can no longer find the road.
Context
The starting point is a real encounter: on 1 June 1905, the author caught sight of a young woman, Yvonne de Quiévrecourt, at the Grand Palais, and he gave her first name to his heroine; he lent Meaulnes many traits of his own adolescence. The novel first appeared in La Nouvelle Revue française, from July to November 1913, then in volume form with Émile-Paul frères the same year. It was adapted for the screen in 1967, then in 2006.
Who it is for
A novel of medium length, often read at school; school life stands alongside the marvellous without anything being explained.
Prizes and reception
Passed over for the 1913 Goncourt, the novel appeared in English under the titles The Wanderer, The Lost Domain, then The Lost Estate.
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