The Lost Domain
Le Grand Meaulnes
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- €11.99
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- €11.99
Publisher Description
The arrival of Augustin Meaulnes at a small provincial secondary school sets in train a series of events that will have a profound effect on his life, and that of his new friend François Seurel. It is Seurel who recalls the impact of le grand Meaulnes, disruptive and charismatic, on his schoolmates, and the encounter that is to haunt them both. Lost, and alone, Meaulnes stumbles upon an isolated house, mysterious revels, and a beautiful girl. When he returns to Seurel it is with the fixed determination to find the house again, and the girl with whom he has fallen in love. But the dreamlike days in the lost domain are evanescent, and Meaulnes is torn between his love and competing claims of loyalty and friendship.
Alain-Fournier's lyrical novel captures the painful transition from adolescence to adulthood without sentimentality, and with heart-wrenching yearning. Romantic and fantastical, it is the story's ultimate truthfulness about human experience that has captivated readers for a hundred years. In her Introduction to this centenary edition, Hermione Lee considers the qualities that have established its reputation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Touching and wonderfully detailed, this portrait of French life in the 1890s will make readers feel not only that they know the time and place but that they are actually there. Fran ois Seurel, a schoolmaster's son, is 15 and lives in a small village with his parents. Augustin Meaulnes is new at school, and comes to stay with the Seurel family as a boarder. Augustin is two years older and very charismatic, and the boys at the school start to call him "le grand Meaulnes" as a tribute. Jasmin Delouche, a physically small young man who nonetheless is "cock of the walk" at the school, feels supplanted by the new arrival but for Fran ois, a whole new world of adventure has been opened. When the boys' ramblings lead them to the domain of the title and an odd party that is taking place there, events are set in motion that will change them. If this were only a chronicle of smalltown life and the ups and downs of youth, it would be a fine story, but the complications that force the boys to grow up quickly deepen the book and make it a classic.
