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François
Seurel, the young protagonist in Henri Alain-Fournier's 1913 novel,
Le Grand Meaulnes, says that the arrival of Augustin Meaulnes
marked "the beginning of a new life." This modern French
work captures the dream-like aura of childhood with a nostalgic
and exquisite delicacy, describing a time where everyday events take on almost supernatural qualities
and hours lingers on endlessly. Periods of youth
remembered as if they belonged to someone else, when one is
overcome by a feeling that goes beyond mere nostalgia. Partly set
in the beautiful French countryside of la Sologne, Le Grand
Meaulnes is also an evocation of a simpler pastoral life
that has long since disappeared.
Seurel is a shy boarding school
student when he meets the charismatic and good-looking Augustin Meaulnes.
Meaulnes is called quite simply 'le grand Meaulnes' by the other
students. The intense nature of the ensuing
friendship changes both their lives in ways both subtle and
obvious. Seurel's fascination with Meaulnes only intensifies after
his friend disappears for three days. Upon his return, Meaulnes
recounts having chanced upon a glorious old estate and a wedding
party where he fell instantly in love with a beautiful young
woman. This woman in the novel, Yvonne de Galais, is based
upon another real Yvonne that Alain-Fournier had been infatuated
with and the novel is autobiographical in many ways. The
ethereal otherworldly quality of Meaulnes's description,
as well as its utopian sensibility, mark Seurel, and the reader,
indelibly. Meaulnes
is haunted by what he has seen and becomes possessed with the idea
of meeting the young woman again. Alain-Fournier's novel
creates a landscape of mystery and beauty with a languorous,
intoxicating quality that is perhaps the same mystery that lies at
the heart of our most powerful attractions.
Le Grand Meaulnes is
Alain-Fournier's only novel. Like many young men of his
generation, the author was killed on the battlefields of World War
I, making this lovely story of lost love and friendship all the
more poignant. Read:
Le
Grand Meaulnes, Henri Alain-Fournier
Tags:
literature
france
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