Le Grand Meaulnes (Penguin Classics Series)

Rating:
Summary: Not as good for the middle aged
Review: I had to read this book in college for a German literature course - which doesn't make much sense since it was originally writen in French and takes place in France. But hey, one character does briefly go to Germany during the course of the story so maybe that was the justification.
Anyway, I have always remembered the book as being fantastic and one of the most emotionally powerful things I had ever read. So much so, that a water stained, yellowed papaerpack copy had come with me over 25 years and 10+ moves to three continents.
So finally last week, I mad the time to read it again both to try to remember the specifics of what was so good and also so I could share it with my teenage daughter. Imagine my surprise to find it somewhat simplistic both in storyline and wtiting. The passion of the characters that caused them to make bad decisions in their lives must have seemed heroic to me as a 20 year old but sure seem transparently stupid to me now.
The general theme that you lose what ever you most passionately desire if you actually acheive it, does not really resonate with me now. Sometimes I find it to be true; other times not and in any case most older people don't desire things with the passion of the young.
Anyway, interesting book. Differet from most other things you might read. Worth the time; especially if you are 20 years old.

Rating:
Summary: The great wanderer
Review: I was interested in reading "Le Grand Meaulnes" after seeing that the English novelist John Fowles cited it as a major influence on his masterpiece "The Magus." I'm not disappointed, to say the least. This is a rare gem of a novel that weaves mystery, adventure, intrigue, romanticism, and realism into a unique package that must have been way ahead of its time and still puts many modern "suspense" novels to shame with its superb prose and sheer elegance.

The novel takes place in a rural French village in the 1890's. The narrator, Francois, is a young teenager who lives and studies at the village school, where his father is the headmaster. One day a boy named Augustin Meaulnes, a couple of years older than Francois, enrolls as a new student and boarder. Meaulnes is somewhat quiet and aloof, but he soon becomes popular with the other boys in the school.

One day Meaulnes expropriates a carriage to go to a nearby town on an errand and mysteriously disappears without explanation. He returns to the school a few days later, but he admits that he doesn't know where he's been. All he knows is that somehow he found himself in a strange, vague place -- a surreal, dreamlike realm that seemed to exist outside of the real world -- where he met a beautiful girl named Yvonne. He pores over maps and searches for clues about this place -- the "mysterious domain" -- so that he can see Yvonne again, while Francois, fascinated by the story of his adventure, is determined to help him.

I would be doing a disservice to the potential reader by revealing any details of the nature of the "mysterious domain" or any more of the plot; so I will only say that every aspect of this novel is nothing short of brilliant, not only in its invention and unpredictability, but in the way it transforms itself by highlighting the contrast between the carefree dream-world of adolescence and the harsh realities of adulthood, and how our childish pastimes and fantasies inevitably give way to our sense of responsibility as we grow and mature. In this manner, the plot actually "matures" with its characters, so that by the end, we see how "grand" a person Meaulnes really is.

Rating:
Summary: The Lost Domain
Review: If you've read Le Grand Meaulnes and liked it, then I can highly recommend Robert Gibsons superb biography of Alain Fournier (alas out of print) called "The Land Without a Name". As haunting and evocative as the novel itself, Gibsons chronicle of Fourniers life gets as close to the heart of his obsession with the Lost Domain as anything I have read. The best literary analysis of the novel (in English at least) is Stephen Gurney's book length study simply titled "Alain Fournier" (also out of print!). Many critics consign Le Grand Meaulnes to the "minor masterpeice" category, however Gurney provides a compelling argument for regarding it as one of the great novels of the 20th century. For another novel on a similair theme, I can also recommend "Picnic at Hanging Rock" by the Australian writer Joan Lindsay. This is a book which bears an uncanny resemblance to Le Grand Meaunles, both in its plot, and in the effect it has on the reader (similairly the brilliant film based on it directed by Peter Weir).