ALAIN FOURNIER

Le Grand Meaulnes

Author and Poet Alain Fournier was born Henri-Alban Fournier  on 3rd October 1886 in La Chapelle-d'Angillon, the son of a schoolteacher.

Although he wrote mainly poetry, he became famous for his novel Le Grand Meaules, which was nominated for, but did not win the Prix Goncourt.

Fournier was killed in battle on 22nd October, and vanished without trace, until 1991, when his remains, along with those of his Company were unearthed and identified by archaeologists. 

A monument was erected at the place where they died and Henri-Alban Fournier’s final resting place is now Saint-Rémy-la-Calonne National Cemetery in the Meuse. 

Here is a summary of the plot as described by Wikipedia:

"François Seurel, the narrator of the book, is the son of M. Seurel, who is the director of the school in a small village in the Sologne, a region of lakes and sandy forests in the heartland of France. After arriving in class, Augustin Meaulnes, a bright young man who comes from a modest background, soon disappears. He returns from an escapade he had which was a nightly and magical costume party where he met the girl of his dreams, Yvonne de Galais. She lives with her widowed father and her brother Frantz in a vast and ancient family chateau which has seen better days. The garden party was held to welcome Frantz and the girl he was to marry. The fiancee, however, fails to appear at that party.

After having returned to the school, Meaulnes has only one idea  : find the mysterious chateau again and the girl who he has now fallen in love with. However his local searches fail while at the same time a bizarre young man shows up at the school  : it is Frantz de Galais under a different name trying to escape the pain of having been rejected. Augustin Meaulnes finds out and leaves for Paris in order to find Yvonne de Galais but fails. He writes to his friend Francois Seurel  : " It is better to forget everything".

Francois Seurel ,who has now become a school teacher like his father, succeeds in finding at last Yvonne de Galais and reuniting her with Meaulnes. Yvonne still lives with her aging father in what is left of old family estates. It is called "Les Sablonnieres" and is not as far as the two young friends had first imagined in earlier years. Yvonne de Galais is still single and confesses to Augustin Meaulnes that he is and has always been the love of her life. Yvonne de Galais accepts, with her father's blessings, Augustin Meaulnes marriage proposal. However Meaulnes leaves her after a few days in order to find her lost brother Frantz (to whom he had promised help many years ago) and re-unite him with his fiancée. Yvonne de Galais, now married to Augustin Meaulnes remains alone at the chateau. Yvonne gives birth to a little girl but dies two days later. Eventually Francois inherits the house Meaulnes and Yvonne lived in and raises the little girl there, while also waiting for the return of his friend Augustin Meaulnes. While looking through old papers Francois Seurel discovers a small handwritten diary by Meaulnes. During the years in Paris ( before François brought Meaulnes and Yvonne back together), Meaulnes had met and romanced the girl who had abandoned Frantz at the party.

Years later, Meaulnes does return having brought Frantz and his fiance back together and claims his daughter." 

 I first encountered Le grand Meaulnes when a play  called "The Lost Domain"  was broadcast by the BBC, in the late 1960's, I immediately rushed out and bought the book and every time I read it I still get a shiver up my spine.

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