author
Alain-Fournier
1886–1914
Best known for a single luminous novel, this French writer turned memories of youth and longing into Le Grand Meaulnes, a book that became a classic. His life was cut short in the first weeks of World War I, which gives his work an added sense of poignancy.
2 Audiobooks
Le Grand Meaulnes
by Alain-Fournier
Miracles avec une introduction de Jacques Rivière
by Alain-Fournier
About the author
Born Henri-Alban Fournier in La Chapelle-d’Angillon, France, Alain-Fournier was the son of schoolteachers. He wrote under the name Alain-Fournier and is remembered above all for Le Grand Meaulnes (1913), his only completed novel, a story closely linked to childhood, desire, and the feeling of chasing a lost world.
Before the war, he also worked as a journalist and moved in important literary circles. Although his published work was small in quantity, Le Grand Meaulnes earned lasting admiration and is widely regarded as a modern classic of French literature.
Alain-Fournier served as a soldier in World War I and was killed in action on September 22, 1914, at just 27 years old. His early death helped fix his reputation as a gifted writer whose promise was never fully realized.