Alain-Fournier
(1886-1914)
Born Henri-Alban Fournier in La Chapelle d’Angillion, he moves to Paris at the age of 12 to study eventually joining Lycee Lakanal in Sceaux where he meets and builds a strong friendship with Jacques Riviere who will later marry his sister Isabelle. At eighteen he briefly meets a beautiful woman Yvonne de Quievrecourt who he falls in love with. The young woman however marries a Naval Doctor the following year, and Alain-Fournier is left heartbroken and unable to take her off his mind for the next eight years. He will use her as an inspiration for Yvonne de Galais in Le Grand Meaulnes. After his military service, he starts publishing essays and poems. He maintained a voluminous correspondence throughout his life with his family and friend Jacques Riviere until his death at the beginning of the first world war, ten months only after publishing his first novel.
Other novels
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Le Grand Meaulnes is the only novel by young talented French author Alain-Fournier, who’s life ended prematurely at the beginning of the First World War. It is a coming-of-age story of two teenage boys who meet at school and enter an adventure where they encounter love, loss, anguish and betrayal. It is set in a beautiful rural France inspired by the Sologne region where the author spent his childhood. Seen through the eyes of the teenage narrator, it evolves on the thin line between reality and dreams.
Le Grand Meaulnes was first published in 1913
Le Grand Meaulnes
Alain-Fournier
