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Le Grand Meaulnes (Penguin Classics)
Henri Alain-Fournier
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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When Alain-Fournier was killed in battle on the Meuse in 1914, he left behind Le Grand Meaulnes, a novel of wistful enchantment. The tale is recounted by François Seurel, whose father heads the village school where Augustin Meaulnes comes to board. A tall, somber youth of 17, he instantly becomes the class ringleader, and is soon known as le grand Meaulnes. When the youth sets off on an impetuous errand of a few hours and doesn't return for several days, events take a darker turn.

After Meaulnes's reappearance, Seurel notices his companion's unrest, and tries to uncover its source. He wakes in the midwinter nights to find Meaulnes pacing the room "like someone rummaging about in his memory, sorting out scraps." Meaulnes remains disconsolate, but finally reveals the nature of his travels, and the strange days of revelry at his unintended destination--the "lost domain" to which he is desperate to return and doesn't know how to find. Seurel rightly guesses that Meaulnes met a young woman there, and that he is in love. "Often afterwards, when he had gone to sleep after trying desperately to recapture that beautiful image, he saw in his dreams a procession of young women who resembled her ... but not one of them was this tall slender girl." The two friends set about retracing Meaulnes's path, and their journeys take them into manhood, when Meaulnes finds at last a way to bring his quest full circle.

Alain-Fournier pairs his tightly twisting plot with a poignant nostalgia. His descriptive powers bring to the reader the sights and sounds--the icy winter winds and rattling carriage wheels--from an earlier time, all the while weaving a brilliant affirmation of loyalty and lasting friendship. --Joannie Kervran Stangeland

Customer Reviews:

Yestercentury or Yesterday?.......2007-02-22

'The Lost Domain' is a location in which the chemistry of love stirs the imagination with both dire and life sustaining results. With the poignancy of this genre's literary decline in the last century, this domain has become self-referential. A read of this brilliant fiction will restore your hopes for the genre. It is tender and affectionate, and at times hallucinatory. The encounter with the domain recalls Hesse's, 'Steppenwolf' and his encounter with the theatre of magic. The narrator's loss when his 'visionary pathfinder', the tragic Meaulnes, is acute' for he embodies the key to an enchanted existence, and is awesome in the proper sense of the word. Frank Davison's translation brings the 1890s up close and personal. Apart from the horse travel(and one marvellous description of free-wheeling on a bicycle), the proximity of close-knit hamlets to eachother, and lamps and candle-lights, the immediacy of the place is striking. By comparison, English contemporary, Siegfried Sassoon's books place you firmly in a bygone era, perhaps as a result of his 'class' protcols. But this beautifully resolved work is free from such distinctions.

French Classic- young men coming of age.......2006-07-27

Le Grand Meaulnes is a beautifully rendered tale full of love, loss, betrayal and friendship. It is the tale of young boys at a boarding school who are coming of age and learning about all that life has to offer. It takes place in the French countryside in the 1800's. It is intriguing to watch the boys mature and take their initial steps into adulthood, from carefree days at their boarding school to emotionally intense times and lives that stretch far beyond the boundaries they had previously observed.
That the author died in action on the Meuse at the age of 27 adds a purity to this story and an authenticity that dwells in the pages of his novel. It is a joy to read.

Strange Magic.......2006-04-30

This is the only novel of a young French writer - his real name was Henri Alban - who died in the First World War at the age of twenty-seven. The narrator is a young boy, the son of a schoolmaster in provincial France in the late nineteenth century, and the story begins when a new pupil comes to the school, the extraordinary Augustin Meaulnes. Taller than the other boys, stronger, more daring, Meaulnes seems destined for adventure; and adventure soon comes when he absconds from school and discovers the mysterious "lost domain," deep in the countryside. There, guests gather for a strange and enchanting party - and Meaulnes meets the beautiful Yvonne de Galais, who is to beguile him for the rest of the book. Thus begins one of the great romantic novels of adolescence and a brilliantly magical fable, filled with mystery and longing.

A great many writers have citied this as a favourite, notably John Fowles, in the preface to the 1977 revised reissue of his novel The Magus (1965), who claims that he sought, in this justly celebrated novel about the mysterious goings-on on a Greek island, to create the same effect of enchantment achieved by Alain-Fournier. (Interestingly, Fowles says that he missed a trick: he should have made his main character a teenage boy, instead of a young schoolteacher.) In English translations, Le Grand Meaulnes (the narrator's bantering term of affection for his intrepid friend, as in "The Great Meaulnes" or "Meaulnes the Great") now usually appears under the French title, but has been known in the past as The Wanderer or, more commonly, The Lost Domain. Read it. This is a book you will never forget, once it has enchanted you with its strange magic.

The Wanderer and The Magus.......2005-12-12

I'm sorry to be one of those who saw the movie first, but I did see both The Magus and The Wanderer at the Nugget - at our college town theater in 1969. Neither have appeared on DVD, which is a shame and a mystery. When and if you get a chance to see the film versions, they will not disappoint! I actually went back the next night to see each of these films again, and now, I must sit with the books and wait.

Until reading these reviews I did not know of the connection between the two, which makes the fascination I experienced and memories kept all these years even more valid.

Perhaps a stunning Candace Bergen at age 22 would not impress you in the main role, but Anthony Quinn had what I will deem his second best role (after Zorba) as The Magus.

Another "go figure" quandary as to why magical intelligent films are not reaching the KMART crowds....

The Tale of a Mysterious Journey.......2005-09-03

I read this book back in high school because I was intrigued by the title ("The Wanderer"). I enjoyed it at the time, and through the years I always remembered it as one that really resonated with my gloomy adolescent mind.

Feeling nostalgic recently, I located a used copy and read it again, trying to recapture whatever it was that had engaged me so many years before. It was interesting to experience the same story from a more seasoned perspective in life. It was not as deep as it had once seemed to me in youth, and yet I noticed and understood many nuances and details that had been opaque to my teenage mind. In a way this parallels the story in the novel. Youth imagines what maturity never sees, and maturity knows what youth never imagined.

The edition I bought included a short biography of the author, who was killed in WWI - this was his only book. It was interesting that the story of the lost love was based on real events in Alain Fournier's short life. It is a glimpse into just one young life that was snuffed out by war, all future promise never to be revealed. As such, it is a story which is nearly as wistful and sad as the novel itself. Just as one wonders "what could have been" if Meaulnes got the girl, so we wonder what other novels Fournier might have gone on to write, had he not been buried beneath the sod of Europe.

Le Grand Meaulnes (Penguin Modern Classics)

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A classic of strange lands and people through a childs eye.

Le Grand Meaulnes (Penguin Modern Classics)
Henri Alain-Fournier
Manufacturer: Penguin Books Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Le Grand Meaulnes (Penguin Classics)
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ASIN: 0141182725

Customer Reviews:

A classic of strange lands and people through a childs eye........1999-07-21

This book is probably one of my all time favorite reads. It's a classic in France and read mainly by younger adults/children. The story is seen from a young boys point of view and encompasses all the delights of a fairytale, from secret countryside and villages to strange travelling people and magic and romance. It is a must for anyone who like myself, dreams of forgotten hours of childhood wandering aimlessly in strange places and forgetting where you are.

The wanderer;: Or, The end of youth (Le grand Meaulnes) (A Signet classic)

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The wanderer;: Or, The end of youth (Le grand Meaulnes) (A Signet classic)
Alain-Fournier
Manufacturer: New American Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

French | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Le Grand Meaulnes (Penguin Classics)

ASIN: B0006C5KVG

Le Grand Meaulnes [The Wanderer] (Livre De Poche, 1000)

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Le Grand Meaulnes [The Wanderer] (Livre De Poche, 1000)
Alain-Fournier [Henri-Alban Fournier]
Manufacturer: Le Livre de Poche
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000CMTB6K

Product Description

Text shows no sign of reading wear. Novel about longing and youthful love unfulfilled by Alain-Fournier (1884-1914), who published this, his only novel, a year before he was killed in World War I.

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Better than Malle or Truffaut?
The Tale of a Mysterious Journey
Not as good for the middle aged

The Wanderer (Le Grand Meaulnes)
Alain Fournier
Manufacturer: Augustus M Kelley Pubs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0678035520

Customer Reviews:

Better than Malle or Truffaut?.......2006-03-19

I knew this book first from the film (english subtitles) and found it even better than Malle or Truffaut at capturing young sensibilities (and yes, immaturity)... I recommend it highly and hope that it will be released on DVD...

The Tale of a Mysterious Journey.......2005-09-03

I read this book back in high school because I was intrigued by the title. I enjoyed it at the time, and through the years I always remembered it as one that really resonated with my gloomy adolescent mind.

Feeling nostalgic, I located a used copy online and read it again, trying to recapture whatever it was that had engaged me so many years before. It was interesting to see the same story after having a bit more experience of life. It was not as deep as it had initially seemed to me before, and yet I noticed and understood many nuances and details that had been opaque to my teenage mind.

The edition I bought included a short biography of the author, who was killed in WWI - this was his only book. It was interesting that the story of the lost love was based on real events in Alain Fournier's short life. It is a glimpse into just one young life that was snuffed out by war, all future promise never to be revealed. As such, it is a story which is nearly as wistful and sad as the novel itself. Just as one wonders "what could have been" if Meaulnes got the girl, so we wonder what other novels Fournier might have gone on to write, had he not been buried beneath the sod of Europe.

Not as good for the middle aged.......2004-04-04

I had to read this book in college for a German literature course - which doesn't make much sense since it was originally writen in French and takes place in France. But hey, one character does briefly go to Germany during the course of the story so maybe that was the justification.
Anyway, I have always remembered the book as being fantastic and one of the most emotionally powerful things I had ever read. So much so, that a water stained, yellowed papaerpack copy had come with me over 25 years and 10+ moves to three continents.
So finally last week, I made the time to read it again both to try to remember the specifics of what was so good and also so I could share it with my teenage daughter. Imagine my surprise to find it somewhat simplistic both in storyline and wtiting. The passion of the characters that caused them to make bad decisions in their lives must have seemed heroic to me as a 20 year old but sure seem transparently stupid to me now.
The general theme that you lose what ever you most passionately desire if you actually acheive it, does not really resonate with me now. Sometimes I find it to be true; other times not and in any case most older people don't desire things with the passion of the young.
Anyway, interesting book. Differet from most other things you might read. Worth the time; especially if you are 20 years old.

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Le Grand Meaulnes
Alain-Fournier
Manufacturer: BiblioBazaar
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1426420056

Book Description

Nous habitions les bâtiments du Cour Supérieur de Sainte-Agathe. Mon père, que j’appelais M. Seurel, comme les autres élèves, y dirigeait à la fois le Cours supérieur, où l’on préparait le brevet d’instituteur, et le Cours moyen. Ma mère faisait la petite classe.

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Le grand Meaulnes
Henri-Alban Alain-Fournier
Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Release Date: 2001-01-16

LE GRAND MEAULNES - THE WANDERER - IN SLIPCASE

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LE GRAND MEAULNES - THE WANDERER - IN SLIPCASE
Alain Fournier
Manufacturer: Heritage Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H457Q6

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Le Grand Meaulnes (The Wanderer)
Alain-Fournier
Manufacturer: Heritage Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Le Grand Meaulnes D'alain-fournier
Fernand Desonay
Manufacturer: French & European Pubns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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