Alain-Fournier biography

One great story 3 August 1886
September 22, 1914

Who is Alain-Fournier?


Henri-Alban Fournier, better known by the pseudonym Alain-Fournier was born in La Chapelle-d'angillon, in the Cher, France, on 3 March 1886. French writer and poet, in life saw published one work, having found death at the young age of twenty-seven, probably at the battle of Verdun during World War I. Some, however, argue was killed in another bloody battle of the Marne.

Not much is known of his life and, in any case, what you know is very low. The little Henri-Alban is the son of teachers, which probably owes its passion for letters and, in General, for study. He spent his childhood in the French region of Sologne, and Bass Berry. Until 1898 he studied and attended with good profit the school of le-Fleuriel-Epineuil, where his father teaches. The next step is that, as a boarder at the Lycée Voltaire, Paris. In recent years, however, the young Henri-Alban matures more and more the idea of entering the naval school, also because of its idealism, which feeds this propensity. In 1901, intending to direct their lives toward the notorious Ecole Navale, moves at Brest. However, no one knows why recondite, soon abandoned this idea and leave this school.

He received his baccalaureate at the Lycée of Bourges, in 1903, and continues his wanderings, passing high school stem Lakanal in Sceaux, near Paris. The student Alain-Fournier is determined to get to the famous École Normale Supérieure and undertakes all the way down to prepare properly for the exam for admission but, shortly after, fails.

It is precisely in these years that binds the wing shape of Jacques Rivière, his friend until his death. These weddings Alain's younger sister, Isabelle Fournier, in 1909. The deep friendship that entertains with a dense rivers, and sometimes lit match between the two, which began in 1905 and ended in 1914, with the death of French writer. Between 1926 and 1928, the correspondence between the two will be in the form of print, of course, and posthumous entitled "Correspondence avec Jacques Reviere".

In June 1905 Alain-Fournier meets the one great love of his life, the beautiful Yvonne Quiévrecourt. The two know each other on the docks of the Seine River, during a walk. The woman is the Muse of his only opera really accomplished, transfigured in female character by Yvonne de Galais, the protagonist of his novel. The meeting between the two is short and, especially for the author, nothing short of dazzling.

Two years later, in 1907, the French poet is missing a second time the entrance exam to the Ecole Normale Supérieure and, a year later, finds himself having to serve in the military, until 1909. In 1910 does return to Paris, finding a spot as editor at the Paris-Journal. These were years of great literary and cultural fervor, even and especially in the header for which he works. It is here that Fournier met André Gide and Paul Claudel, two of the future protagonists of French cultural scene. However, experience the Parisian newspaper did not last. Fournier left the Editorial Board of the Journal Paris-just two years later, in 1912, to devote himself to politics, one of his great passions. It becomes then, Secretary of the politician Casimir Perrier and simultaneously began writing his masterpiece, the novel "Le Grand Meaulnes" (the great Meaulnes, in Italian), strongly inspired by the events that have involved from childhood until adulthood. The events described in the book is simple, around this though, told with great skill, the poetic parable of the passage from childhood to adolescence, in a dense tangle of reality and dream, between subtle psychological impressions and tender, haunted lyricism.

In 1913, most likely by accident, the writer meets Yvonne again Quiévrecourt. When you review though, the woman is married, as well as the mother of two children. It arouses strong disturbances in the mind of the author, which are visible in some of the poems written during these years, published only after his death.

The newspaper "Nouvelle Revue Française" a passion to his novel and decides to publish it, as the feuilleton, a little at a time, in installments. Towards the end of 1913, the novel, in its entirety, is published by Emile-Paul. Just then, a good strong public success and critical acclaim received, the novel "Le Grand Meaulnes", is selected to participate in the prestigious Goncourt Prize.

The following year, Alain-Fournier tries to devote himself to the theatre, also taking to work on the piece "La maison dans la forêt". At the same time, begins to roll out what would have been his second novel, Colombe Blanchet, "which, as the drama work, unfortunately remains unfinished.

At the outbreak of World War I, he decided to join the French army in August 1914, as a Lieutenant of the reserve. After a few weeks is reported missing in battle at Les Éparges, near Verdun, Meuse. Probably, Alain-Fournier finds death right on 22 September 1914, during one of the first clashes of the war. However, his body is not identified until 1991, when found in a common grave. The location, close to Tranchée de Calonne, road between Verdun and Hattonchâtel, seems to confirm the cause of his death and, especially, the exact place.

In 1924, on the wave of success from his first and only novel, is published a collection of poems, titled writer "Miracles". While dates back to 1944, the long and passionate tale titled "poison woman". In 1957 however, Pauline bandage, French actress and wife of politician Claude Casimir-Périer, Secretary was Alain-Fournier, is revealed to have had an affair with the poet. In 1992, in confirmation of the foregoing, is also published their papers, entitled "Alain-Fournier, Madame Simone, Correspondance 1912-1914".