Henri Alain-Fournier (1886–1914)
Author of Le Grand Meaulnes
About the Author
Alain-Fournier was born Henri Alban Fournier, on October 3, 1886, in La Chapelle-d'Angillon, France. His untimely death in action during World War I came just before his twenty-eighth birthday, barely one year after the publication of his first and only novel, the minor classic, Le Grand Meaulnes. show more Published in English translation in 1928 as The Wanderer, and in a new translation in 1959 as The Lost Domain, this single testament to Fournier's artistic promise influenced writers between the World Wars and still inspires admiration. Suffused with elements of symbolism and surrealism, Le Grand Meaulnes recreates with dreamlike richness the lost "land without a name" of Alain-Fournier's happy childhood in the French countryside. Alain-Fournier's novel was the result of a series of disappointments. He was haunted for years by an obsession for a beautiful blonde woman whom he barely knew. He failed to pass the entrance examination to the prestigious Ecole Normale and a licence examination in English. While in a stormy relationship with a new love in 1910, Le Grand Meaulnes began to take form. In the summer of 1913 Le Grand Meaulnes was serialized in La Nouvelle Revue Francaise, edited by Jacques Riviere, Alain-Fournier's life-long friend and brother-in-law. Le Grand Meaulnes was published in book form in October 1913, nearly winning the Goncourt Prize. Called up to serve with his former regiment at the outbreak of World War I, Alain-Fournier was killed on September 22, 1914, in battle near Vaux-les-Palameix, France. His body was not recovered. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:
(fre) Ne pas confondre l'auteur français avec le sportif canadien Fournier (Alain)
Do not confuse with the Canadian Alain Fournier (note the lack of hyphen)
Image credit: Le Lieutenant Fournier en 1913 aux manoeuvres de Caylus
Works by Henri Alain-Fournier
DET UNDERBARA ÄVENTYRET 1 copy
Der grosse Kamerad 1 copy
Cararea pierduta 1 copy
Koizelné dobrodružství 1 copy
Associated Works
Het neusje van de zalm een feestelijke bloemlezing uit Querido's 'vlaggetjesreeks' (1986) — Contributor — 7 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Alain-Fournier, Henri
- Legal name
- Fournier, Henri-Alban
- Other names
- Fournier, Alain
- Birthdate
- 1886-10-03
- Date of death
- 1914-09-22
- Burial location
- Saint-Remy-la-Calonne, Meuse, France
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- France
- Country (for map)
- France
- Birthplace
- La Chapelle-d'Angillon, Cher, France
- Place of death
- Vaux-lès-Palameix, Meuse, France
- Cause of death
- Fait de guerre (WW1)
- Places of residence
- Paris, France
- Education
- merchant marine school
Lycée Lakanal - Occupations
- literary critic
soldier - Relationships
- Riviere, Jacques (brother-in-law)
Rivière, Isabelle (sister) - Organizations
- French Army
- Disambiguation notice
- Do not confuse with the Canadian Alain Fournier (note the lack of hyphen)
Members
Discussions
Q2 2022 Group Read – Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier in Geeks who love the Classics (July 2022)
Le Grand Meaulnes in Literary Centennials (August 2013)
Reviews
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 23
- Also by
- 2
- Members
- 3,599
- Popularity
- #7,039
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 81
- ISBNs
- 263
- Languages
- 18
- Favorited
- 6
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Le Grand Meaulnes is the first and really the only major work of Alain-Fournier, a young French writer who died in the early days of WW1 thus cutting short a promising talent who showed a panache for combining and contrasting romanticist eloquence and realist portraiture of French life that put him in the lineage of greats like Balzac and Flaubert. It's not a particularly well known French classic in the Anglosphere but it still enjoys important place in the French canon and its influence is wider outside there than seems to often be acknowledged (that F. Scott Fitzgerald called his masterpiece on lost love and shattered illusions The Great Gatsby, a title with the same resonance as the French language title of this book, is no coincidence).
It seems to be something of a love-it-or-hate-it online with many people proclaiming their love for it and many saying they don't see the fuss - my rating and description so far probably gives away that I'm much closer to the first camp. You probably do have to have some affinity with the Meaulnes of the title in this intensely mysterious and evocative depiction of bygone youth, longing after the dreams, places and people of our distant and possibly imagined pasts. At the same time it's equally an early kind of coming-of-age novel, potentially attractive to those in their own adolescence as well as those looking back on it. My favourite sections were probably those of the Domain itself which is really where the novel kicks into full gear after a slow-ish start, though the third part picks up serious steam even if I'd argue it emotionally climaxes a little too early and the last few chapters feel like an after-note to how devastating that moment is. Some gorgeous writing in here that often inspired my own wistful feelings as well as leaving me in suspense enough that I devoured the last 10 chapters at breakneck speed and felt the full emotional impact of a certain vivid event even through the barrier of my still incomplete understanding of French.
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Speaking of which, my experience with the language itself - this was a huge step up in difficulty from Le Petit Prince as I expected and my Kindle dictionary got a regular workout for the first five or so chapters. The uses of the conditional and subjunctive still gave me occasional trouble though this might be the first time I really understood a few uses of the latter fully - otherwise once the basic vocabulary had been laid out I found my reading speed picking up throughout until I practically did extensive reading for the last 4-5 chapters and still felt like I didn't miss out on too much. My first time seeing a lot of words here, and this feels like my gateway into more formal, classical French - but it was a gentle one and the vocabulary remained fairly set after the first part which meant I felt like I'd learned a lot by the end. I'll vividly remember the experience and though my sometimes tricky understanding may have made an already dreamy and hazy novel even more so it's one I look forward to returning to one day when I'm more at ease.… (more)