Summary of The Great Meaulnes
The Great Meaulnes is a semi-autobiographical novel by the French author Alain-Fournier. It follows Augustin Meaulnes, a seventeen-year-old student who falls in love with Yvonne de Galais after attending a mysterious party at a French château. Unable to find her again afterwards, he becomes obsessed with recapturing that magical moment from his youth. Eventually, with the help of his friend, François Seurel, he succeeds in finding Yvonne again. However, when he tries to reunite Yvonne’s brother, Frantz, with Valentine Blondeau, the girl who abandoned him on their wedding day, Meaulnes becomes entangled in a series of conflicting loyalties that threaten his own happiness.
Reasons to read The Great Meaulnes
Alain-Fournier was a French author who died in 1914 at the age of twenty-seven while serving as a soldier during the First World War. The Great Meaulnes was his only completed novel, published a year before his death, and remains one of the most beloved novels in French literature. Combining romance, nostalgia and the loss of youthful illusions, it is considered a classic in France. Some commentators have suggested that its title inspired the title of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Setting: Sologne, Centre-Val de Loire (France)
The Great Meaulnes is set in a fictional village called Sainte-Agathe (inspired by Épineuil-le-Fleuriel, where Alain-Fournier grew up), in the Sologne region of central France.
Original title: Le grand Meaulnes
Year of publication: 1913
Nr of pages: 264
