What do you think?
La Cour des grands
Arthur Morgan est un jeune Français des années cinquante, qui débarque aux Etats-Unis pour y étudier naïvement le droit des affaires. Sa mère, veuve de guerre qui brûle d'ambition pour lui, veut que, d'un milieu désargenté, il passe dans ce qu'elle appelle la cour des grands. Avant de disparaître et de laisser à son fils un cuisant remords, elle aura la joyeuse illusion de sa réussite, sans être témoin de ses échecs sentimentaux. Jusqu'à ce qu'il les surmonte, ces échecs réduiront la réussite d'Arthur à la très vaine victoire d'un froid calculateur. La rencontre avec Augusta, la Brésilienne, est une de ces défaites dont on ne se relève qu'en portant un masque. La leçon donnée par Elizabeth mettra vingt ans à cicatriser. C'était un malentendu. L'histoire des amours discrètes ou célèbres n'a jamais été qu'une suite de malentendus. Augusta, Elizabeth et Arthur n'échappent pas à cette fatalité dont un homme guéri par l'expérience est heureux de triompher fût-ce vingt ans après.
- GenresFrance
304 pages, Pocket Book
First published January 1, 1996
About the author
Michel Déon
107 books28 followersMichel Déon was a French novelist and playwright. He adopted the nom de plume Michel Déon, and made it his official name in octobre 1965. He has published over 50 works and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Prix Interallié for his 1970 novel, Les Poneys sauvages (The Wild Ponies). Déon's 1973 novel Un taxi mauve received the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française. His novels have been translated into numerous languages.
In 1978, Déon was elected to the Académie française. Déon is an affiliate member of the Portuguese Academy of Science and Letters. He is a doctor honoris causa at the universities of Athens and Ireland. He is also an honorary citizen of Nice, Aix-en-Provence, and Antibes. His works have been translated into many languages.
Déon and his wife Chantal raised their two children, Alice and Alexandre, on the small Greek island of Spetsai. When the children reached school age in 1968, France was in a state of upheaval. The Déon family settled in Ireland. For over forty years, Déon and his family have made Ireland their home, raising Chantal's fifty horses.
In 1978, Déon was elected to the Académie française. Déon is an affiliate member of the Portuguese Academy of Science and Letters. He is a doctor honoris causa at the universities of Athens and Ireland. He is also an honorary citizen of Nice, Aix-en-Provence, and Antibes. His works have been translated into many languages.
Déon and his wife Chantal raised their two children, Alice and Alexandre, on the small Greek island of Spetsai. When the children reached school age in 1968, France was in a state of upheaval. The Déon family settled in Ireland. For over forty years, Déon and his family have made Ireland their home, raising Chantal's fifty horses.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 13, 2017
A coming-of-age tale set in the 1950s, The Great and the Good tells of the adventures of young and innocent Arthur Morgan who sails to the US from France on a scholarship to an Ivy League University. En route he meets an unlikely trio of passengers, worldly and, to his eyes at least, sophisticated and exotic. He falls in love with the elusive Augusta but the progress of any potential romance is fraught with difficulties. Not least the completely unconvincing nature of Augusta herself and her rather manipulative brother. It’s a rather picaresque story and ultimately a tedious one. I couldn't summon up enthusiasm for any of this motley crew and really didn’t care whether Arthur made a success of himself or not. Michel Déon is an acclaimed part of the French literary scene and an Academician, who in fact has only recently died at the age of 97, but this isn’t a good introduction to his work. The Foundling and The Foundling’s War, although equally picaresque, are much more enjoyable books so would be a better place to start.
November 3, 2016
I love the 1950's and books set in the 1950's I love.
Translated from the original this book is translated perfectly. With no funny/embarrassing translation instead running seamlessly and translated well.
This book is not a book to skim read. This book is to read and savour. Enjoying every moment every word and every description.
New York pops with amazing descriptions and you really feel that you are there in the 1950s with everyone.
I really liked the characters in this book and I liked the relationships between them. I loved going on the journey of discovery and growing up.
Arthur emerges from the newly liberated but financially depressed France. Where he will continue his studies in a prestigious New England school.
Arthur must succeed for his mother has paid lots of money for him to get into this school and she has a lot of hopes riding on him succeeding.
A great coming of age story. Mixed with history. Wonderful descriptions. Characters with clout and a story about hopes and promises. A charming read.
Thank you to NetGalley, Gallic books and Michel Deon for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review.
Happy reading everyone
Translated from the original this book is translated perfectly. With no funny/embarrassing translation instead running seamlessly and translated well.
This book is not a book to skim read. This book is to read and savour. Enjoying every moment every word and every description.
New York pops with amazing descriptions and you really feel that you are there in the 1950s with everyone.
I really liked the characters in this book and I liked the relationships between them. I loved going on the journey of discovery and growing up.
Arthur emerges from the newly liberated but financially depressed France. Where he will continue his studies in a prestigious New England school.
Arthur must succeed for his mother has paid lots of money for him to get into this school and she has a lot of hopes riding on him succeeding.
A great coming of age story. Mixed with history. Wonderful descriptions. Characters with clout and a story about hopes and promises. A charming read.
Thank you to NetGalley, Gallic books and Michel Deon for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review.
Happy reading everyone
August 18, 2017
A lovely book. The story of (part of) a life. Luxuriant passages of commentary.
September 2, 2019
[2.5 o 2.75/5]
Una lettura leggera e forse anche godibile, ma che non mi ha lasciato alcunché. La trama prometteva bene, ma il realtà sembra che l'autore non arrivi mai al punto della questione, e lo stesso discorso vale per Arthur, il protagonista, diviso tra l'amore per due donne: finale scontato e prevedibile, andamento piatto e monotono per tutta la narrazione.
Una lettura leggera e forse anche godibile, ma che non mi ha lasciato alcunché. La trama prometteva bene, ma il realtà sembra che l'autore non arrivi mai al punto della questione, e lo stesso discorso vale per Arthur, il protagonista, diviso tra l'amore per due donne: finale scontato e prevedibile, andamento piatto e monotono per tutta la narrazione.
July 1, 2021
Not something I’d usually read, but I’m glad I did.
January 23, 2017
Being obsessive and losing focus on the real things that are important in life.
Twenty-two-year-old Arthur Morgan (a Frenchman) has been given a Fulbright Scholarship to study Commercial Law at Beresford University in the United States. His mother manages to scrape enough money together to pay for him to sail to the States, first class, on the Queen Mary. Thanks to this very generous present, Arthur meets and befriends people who will have a profound effect on both his career and the friends he makes at university.
Three people who will make the most impact on him are Augusta and her brother Getulio Mendosa and Elizabeth Murphy. He meets them on the first day of the voyage and falls instantly in love with Augusta. Her beauty and fragile manner captivates him. However, Getulio has other ideas for his sister and her future. He wants her to marry someone who he deems suitable (with loads of money!) He forbids them having a relationship, meaning that all their meetings become clandestine.
I mentioned to a friend that I’d found the book irritating and she suggested that I needed to look at my own feelings to find what had sparked the grumpiness it seemed to stir inside me. I’ve taken longer to think about the storyline and consequently my review. What I discovered about myself was interesting.
Arthur is a beautiful sensitive character who works hard to obtain his degree thanks to the scholarship. He’s sensible, presentable and hugely popular with both his class mates but also with his lecturers. Instead of realising and accepting his future and relishing how his life changes thanks to this scholarship, his unfulfilling love for Augusta, blocks any other thoughts or feelings he might have developed for anyone else.
Elizabeth is the only other character who I felt had any spunk. She has a huge personality and is determined to make it in the world as both an actress and a producer. Unfortunately, Arthur never gives her the love and respect she deserves because of his blinkered thoughts that only focus on Augusta. This obsession really got under my skin and I’ll have to give it further thought as to why it did cause me so much irritation. Was it because I myself had at some stage had an obsessive love for someone? Or because I wanted to take him and shake him?
Another irritation was the method the author has used to write the book. It’s all a series of long paragraphs with none of those breaks that I like to find in a book: reaching the end of a chapter! There weren’t any, which meant that I had none of my usual discipline (when reading in bed) to get to the end of the chapter before switching off my brain for the night. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a book written in this manner and therefore found it quite disturbing for my somewhat OCD behaviour.
Considering how much I disliked the format, the obsessive love, some of the characters, why four stars? Well, this is thanks to my friend making me truly analyse my emotions that came to the surface thanks to this book.
Treebeard
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.
Twenty-two-year-old Arthur Morgan (a Frenchman) has been given a Fulbright Scholarship to study Commercial Law at Beresford University in the United States. His mother manages to scrape enough money together to pay for him to sail to the States, first class, on the Queen Mary. Thanks to this very generous present, Arthur meets and befriends people who will have a profound effect on both his career and the friends he makes at university.
Three people who will make the most impact on him are Augusta and her brother Getulio Mendosa and Elizabeth Murphy. He meets them on the first day of the voyage and falls instantly in love with Augusta. Her beauty and fragile manner captivates him. However, Getulio has other ideas for his sister and her future. He wants her to marry someone who he deems suitable (with loads of money!) He forbids them having a relationship, meaning that all their meetings become clandestine.
I mentioned to a friend that I’d found the book irritating and she suggested that I needed to look at my own feelings to find what had sparked the grumpiness it seemed to stir inside me. I’ve taken longer to think about the storyline and consequently my review. What I discovered about myself was interesting.
Arthur is a beautiful sensitive character who works hard to obtain his degree thanks to the scholarship. He’s sensible, presentable and hugely popular with both his class mates but also with his lecturers. Instead of realising and accepting his future and relishing how his life changes thanks to this scholarship, his unfulfilling love for Augusta, blocks any other thoughts or feelings he might have developed for anyone else.
Elizabeth is the only other character who I felt had any spunk. She has a huge personality and is determined to make it in the world as both an actress and a producer. Unfortunately, Arthur never gives her the love and respect she deserves because of his blinkered thoughts that only focus on Augusta. This obsession really got under my skin and I’ll have to give it further thought as to why it did cause me so much irritation. Was it because I myself had at some stage had an obsessive love for someone? Or because I wanted to take him and shake him?
Another irritation was the method the author has used to write the book. It’s all a series of long paragraphs with none of those breaks that I like to find in a book: reaching the end of a chapter! There weren’t any, which meant that I had none of my usual discipline (when reading in bed) to get to the end of the chapter before switching off my brain for the night. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a book written in this manner and therefore found it quite disturbing for my somewhat OCD behaviour.
Considering how much I disliked the format, the obsessive love, some of the characters, why four stars? Well, this is thanks to my friend making me truly analyse my emotions that came to the surface thanks to this book.
Treebeard
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.
May 6, 2021
Reading as a GenZ, it might be a struggle because of the long desires of youth and Bro 6 months to be able to meet and then takes years to love. More than what equates the story of love, I realised the story of life and adventures. Like we all dwell on, not a success story but rather a story of persuasion and patience of figuring out what we value in the end.
October 22, 2016
Review copy courtesy of Gallic Books/NetGalley, many thanks.
Arthur emerges from a newly liberated but financially depressed France to continue his studies in a prestigious New England university, at great cost to his mother and bearing the burden of her hopes for his brilliant future amongst ‘the great and the good’ of the American elite. The story hinges on just how great and how good they (and Arthur) turn out to be. On the voyage over the Atlantic on the Queen Mary, he meets several people who will have a profound effect on his life for the next 20 years. 1950s New York comes alive and I found the characters and the relationships between them engaging, and hoped for happy endings.
This is not a book to skip through quickly - dense and intimate, there are passages to savour. Great writing and the translation flows seamlessly. I had noticed the Gallic Press publications of Déon’s The Foundling Boy and The Foundling’s War earlier but at the time felt saturated with novels about WWII and overlooked them. On the strength of this book, they are now at the top of my ‘to read’ list.
April 26, 2019
Un romanzo dalla tematica americana ma dallo stile francese.
Un mix di Grande Gatsby (ma senza la punta noir di Fitzgerald), romanzo di formazione (ma sorvolando su molti aspetti della formazione del protagonista) e commedia romantica (ma con due protagoniste femminili a tratti veramente fastidiose).
Un romanzo che si fa leggere, intrattiene ma, per quanto mi riguarda, spesso irrita. Si, perché ho trovato le figure femminili di Deon superficiali, incomplete e inconcludenti ... insomma due donne davvero insopportabili! Mi è mancata la caratterizzazione dei personaggi femminili, elemento che noto spesso quando a scrivere romanzi con personaggi femminili importanti è un uomo (e viceversa).
Insomma un NI.
Un mix di Grande Gatsby (ma senza la punta noir di Fitzgerald), romanzo di formazione (ma sorvolando su molti aspetti della formazione del protagonista) e commedia romantica (ma con due protagoniste femminili a tratti veramente fastidiose).
Un romanzo che si fa leggere, intrattiene ma, per quanto mi riguarda, spesso irrita. Si, perché ho trovato le figure femminili di Deon superficiali, incomplete e inconcludenti ... insomma due donne davvero insopportabili! Mi è mancata la caratterizzazione dei personaggi femminili, elemento che noto spesso quando a scrivere romanzi con personaggi femminili importanti è un uomo (e viceversa).
Insomma un NI.
January 4, 2017
VERDICT: A coming of age story, where the great may not be good enough to give sense to your life. So currently relevant.
my full review is here:
https://wordsandpeace.com/2017/01/06/...
my full review is here:
https://wordsandpeace.com/2017/01/06/...
January 19, 2017
Great story, well written, with fascinating characters.
Recommended.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Gallic via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.
Recommended.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Gallic via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.
February 8, 2017
See my full review at The Emerald City Book Review. Though written in French, Déon's The Great and the Good is mostly set in 1950s America -- we meet the protagonist as he sails for the East Coast university he'll attend on a Fulbright scholarship. Though not wealthy, his mother has paid for his first-class passage so that he will make connections with "the great and the good," and so he meets the people who will haunt him for the rest of his life. A drunken professor, a haughty aspiring actress, and a South American con artist and his beautiful sister become the true instruments of his education in the sorrows and sufferings of the heart.
With glimpses of Cold War government machinations, the Bohemian squalor of Greenwich Village, and the experimental theater scene, Déon gives us a wry and ironic portrait of postwar America from a foreigner's point of view. For me the weakest link was the central love story -- the object of our young hero's passion remained curiously null and featureless to me, and his attachment to her felt more like a narrative necessity than an actual relationship.
I did think that The Great and the Good would make a terrific film, along the lines of Brooklyn, and the weakness in characterization could be offset by some well-thought-out visuals. Michel Déon died in December, an icon of the French literary scene with more than 50 books to his credit, only one of which had been translated before Gallic took him up. Now that he's finally being published in English, let's hope we might see some of his works hit the big time.
With glimpses of Cold War government machinations, the Bohemian squalor of Greenwich Village, and the experimental theater scene, Déon gives us a wry and ironic portrait of postwar America from a foreigner's point of view. For me the weakest link was the central love story -- the object of our young hero's passion remained curiously null and featureless to me, and his attachment to her felt more like a narrative necessity than an actual relationship.
I did think that The Great and the Good would make a terrific film, along the lines of Brooklyn, and the weakness in characterization could be offset by some well-thought-out visuals. Michel Déon died in December, an icon of the French literary scene with more than 50 books to his credit, only one of which had been translated before Gallic took him up. Now that he's finally being published in English, let's hope we might see some of his works hit the big time.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews