Le Grand Meaulnes (translated to The Lost Estate in English) is French author's Alain-Fournier's one and only novel published 1913, just a year before his death on the battlefields of World War I. It tells the semi-biographical tale of a young man named François Seurel, who narrates the book and talks about his impulsive and intense relationship with an older girl named Augustin Meaulnes. At its core, Alain-Fournier's book is about the naivete and fervor of childhood, romance, and both the incredible highs - and tremendous lows - of life.
When it was released, Le Grand Meaulnes received positive reviews. Even today, the book is considered a classic of French literature. Julian Barnes of The Guardian, who reviewed the book in 2012, called the novel "great" and said that it was incredibly "seductive" and "magical, high-hearted, improbable, coincidence-ridden, operatic – yet never sentimental, because it is true to what we remember about adolescence, with all its hopes and fears and impossible dreams."
