bomull's review against another edition
4.0
Det stora äventyret är en mycket atmosfärisk och drömlik bok, som får mig att tänka på många fina barndomsminnen, nästan alla i regn och mörker, bland våta höstlov och långa kalla raster, om den magiska kraft endast barn kan ge obetydliga grejer så som en koja, en pinne, en sten eller ett träd. Det är mörkret, regnet och kylan som passar så väl in i det drömlika och magiska, för att det som borde verka tråkigt och vardagligt får pojkårens magi.
Däremot har jag svårt att hänga med i berättelsen som blir lite långdragen och rörig, men det beror nog mer på mig än på boken. Hade jag förstått boken helt hade jag säkert tyckt om den ännu mer.
Däremot har jag svårt att hänga med i berättelsen som blir lite långdragen och rörig, men det beror nog mer på mig än på boken. Hade jag förstått boken helt hade jag säkert tyckt om den ännu mer.
memita's review against another edition
4.0
4,5*
Peca por algumas partes em que se enrola e pelo protagonista que dá título ao livro. A prova de que uma amizade, só por sê-lo, não deve ser sagrada nem o será imaculada. Houve, de facto, vários aspectos que me incomodaram, mas são aspectos que, tendo por base o valor da promessa e da honra, fazem sentido dentro da história. A questão é que, para mim, outros valores têm prioridade.
Adorei o narrador, François Seurel, esse que foi um verdadeiro e belo companheiro, para mim, o verdadeiro protagonista da história, o herói por que torci. Ele conta-nos as voltas estranhas (por vezes, injustas) que a vida dá, desde a vivência dos tempos maravilhosos da adolescência até à dura realidade da vida adulta. Este livro tem uma das cenas mais tristes que li na literatura, aliás, tem várias, mas uma delas tocou-me especialmente, cena essa que não vou esquecer. Desejava poder alterar o destino das personagens e contar uma história mais feliz... A última cena é também de partir o coração.
Peca por algumas partes em que se enrola e pelo protagonista que dá título ao livro. A prova de que uma amizade, só por sê-lo, não deve ser sagrada nem o será imaculada. Houve, de facto, vários aspectos que me incomodaram, mas são aspectos que, tendo por base o valor da promessa e da honra, fazem sentido dentro da história. A questão é que, para mim, outros valores têm prioridade.
Adorei o narrador, François Seurel, esse que foi um verdadeiro e belo companheiro, para mim, o verdadeiro protagonista da história, o herói por que torci. Ele conta-nos as voltas estranhas (por vezes, injustas) que a vida dá, desde a vivência dos tempos maravilhosos da adolescência até à dura realidade da vida adulta. Este livro tem uma das cenas mais tristes que li na literatura, aliás, tem várias, mas uma delas tocou-me especialmente, cena essa que não vou esquecer. Desejava poder alterar o destino das personagens e contar uma história mais feliz... A última cena é também de partir o coração.
flora444's review against another edition
4.0
Loved the beginning and end, the description of the fête was fantastical and whimsical, and I like the intertwining of friendship and romance, although it got a bit boring in the middle and I cldnt even recount what happened there tbh
I read it cos it’s apparently a classic of french literature, so one day I might read it in the original language..
I read it cos it’s apparently a classic of french literature, so one day I might read it in the original language..
draemgirl's review against another edition
4.0
It was fun!
The blurb did not do this book justice and did not actually give me any insight into what this book actually contained!
I can’t do it justice in this review it was just a lot of fun to read and was a good break from what I’ve been reading recently!
So enjoyable and well written !!!
The blurb did not do this book justice and did not actually give me any insight into what this book actually contained!
I can’t do it justice in this review it was just a lot of fun to read and was a good break from what I’ve been reading recently!
So enjoyable and well written !!!
ricefun's review against another edition
5.0
I received this book though my Patreon subscription to “The Two Sister’s Books and More.” Even without reading it I would have given it 5 stars because of the beautiful color plates contained throughout the book. I will enjoy pulling it off the shelf and looking at these beautiful pictures again. As for the story, it is a different pace and tone because it is a French story. I suspect that this is a well-known classic in French culture, but it was new to me. The translation seemed fine, though a little clunky in places. My biggest disappointment with this novel is the main character, who barely inhabits a life of his own but clearly only exists to share the story of the more central character, Admiral Meaulnes. Overall this was well worth reading.
franderochefort's review against another edition
4.0
Going to start splitting my reviews of French lit into two sections, first part for the book itself and second for my reading experience.
_____
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.
__________
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.
_____
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.
__________
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.
rosekk's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this in the end. It got off to quite a slow start, so for a while I wasn't that into it, but once I was about a third of the way though the intrigue began to pick up.
foggy_rosamund's review against another edition
3.0
Alain-Fournier does some things very well: throughout this novel he maintains an engaging plot, and I was gripped throughout. He also creates atmosphere beautifully, through descriptions of the natural world, and of place, from the mundane school-room to the magical lost chalet. This is the story of Meaulnes and his school-friend Francois, who both become obsessed with finding a mysterious castle somewhere in the French countryside. The strength of the book is its atmosphere: the nostalgia for the world of the 1830s and 40s, and for the hope and courage of adolescence. The mysteries, too, are very evocative, but while I do sometimes complain that books raise a lot of questions without answering them, this book, though it raises many mysteries, brings them all to a conclusion. However, unfortunately the answers are less satisfying than the mysteries themselves. My other big problem with this book is the character of Meaulnes, so central to this novel. The other characters find him compelling and fascinating, but I couldn't understand what made him so interesting, and felt Alain-Fournier didn't explore him enough. In this aspect, the novel failed for me, but it remains an interesting story, worth reading for its nostalgic atmosphere alone.
paul_cornelius's review against another edition
5.0
It is time to reread this book. I first read it some 36-37 years ago. And I've thought of going back to it a couple of times since then. There is something still there trying to pull me back. The yearning, the ever lasting desire to return to earlier, simpler times of youth. Above all is the attraction of its storytelling; it is fashioned in the form of a quest--in this case the quest for a lost chateau. Once fulfilled it opens a door to yet another world of reminiscences and lost chances. This is a novel that is the product of Europe on the cusp of World War I. Like the novel, that pre-war world is lost forever, its perspectives, obsessions, and way of life as remote after the war as the Golden Age of ancient Greece.
While skipping around comments about Le Grand Meaulnes, I have just come across an essay by the Julian Barnes, written in 2012. What effect does Le Grand Meaulnes have on a person in their 60s who is rereading it through the prism of their younger self so many decades before? I'm about to find out.
While skipping around comments about Le Grand Meaulnes, I have just come across an essay by the Julian Barnes, written in 2012. What effect does Le Grand Meaulnes have on a person in their 60s who is rereading it through the prism of their younger self so many decades before? I'm about to find out.
romanr's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0