Book description
When Meaulnes first arrives at the local school in Sologne, everyone is
captivated by his good looks, daring and charisma. But when Meaulnes
disappears for several days, and returns with tales of a strange party
at a mysterious house and a beautiful girl hidden within it, he has been
changed forever. In his restless search for his Lost Estate and the
happiness he found there, Meaulnes, observed by his loyal friend
Francois, may risk losing everything he ever had. Poised between
youthful admiration and adult resignation, Alain-Fournier s compelling
narrator carries the reader through this evocative and unbearably
poignant portrayal of desperate friendship and vanished adolescence.
Alain Fournier was born in La Chapelle d'Angillon in 1886. Le Grand
Meaulnes was published in 1912. Les Miracles appeared posthumously in
1924. Alan Fourneir was killed in action on the Lesuse in 1914.
Robin Buss is a writer and translator who works for the Independent
on Sunday and as television critic for The Times Educational
Supplement. He is part-author of the article 'French Literature' in
Encyclopaedia Britannica and has published critical studies of works
by Vigny and Cocteau, and three books on European cinema, The French
Through Their Films (1988), Italian Films (1989) and French Film Noir
(1994). He has also translated a number of volumes for Penguin
Classics.
Adam Gopnik is a New Yorker staff writer and author of the recently
published Paris To The Moon.
