Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Die Falschmünzer
Für wen es gedacht ist
For readers who love novels about ideas, young people growing up, and writers at work, with tangled family lives and questions about what makes a person genuine.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
The Counterfeiters is a novel by the French writer André Gide, published in 1925 under the French title Les Faux-monnayeurs. Gide had written many short narratives he called tales or sotie, a kind of comic satire. This was the only book he ever agreed to call a novel, and he spent years on it. He kept a separate diary of its making, which shows how much he wanted to break the habits of the older French novel.
The book is set in Paris in the years before the First World War. It follows a crowd of schoolboys, young men, parents and writers whose lives cross. One of them, a novelist named Edouard, is trying to write a book called The Counterfeiters, so the novel you read has a second novel inside it. Gide asks what is real in a person and what is only a pose, a borrowed idea or a coin with no gold in it. In this summary you will meet the main people, follow how their lives knot together, and see how Gide builds his story. Let us begin with the boy who walks out of his father's house.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A schoolboy leaves home and finds a writerFree
- 2Two families hide what they cannot say
- 3A rival writer offers Olivier a glamorous life
- 4The boys of a boarding school pass false coins
- 5What the book says about sincerity and the false
- 6A novel about writing a novel
Punkt 1 von 6
A schoolboy leaves home and finds a writer
The story opens with Bernard Profitendieu, a clever schoolboy in Paris who is about to sit his final school examinations. At home he finds a letter that shows him that the man he calls his father may not be his real father. Bernard does not weep or argue. He decides to leave the house that night, and he does so without any plan except to live by his own judgment.
His closest friend is Olivier Molinier, a sensitive boy who is also close to finishing school. Bernard goes to Olivier for help, and through Olivier he is drawn into a wider circle. Olivier has an uncle, the novelist Edouard, who has just come back to Paris. Edouard is older, quiet and watchful, and he writes down what he sees in a private journal.
This journal matters a great deal to the book. Parts of the story reach us through Edouard's own entries, so we read what he notes about the boys and also what he fails to see in himself. Edouard is drawn to Olivier, and Gide treats this feeling plainly and without a lecture. At the same time Edouard is curious about Bernard, who seems to him free in a way that he would like to be.
So the first movement of the book sets up a young man who has cut his ties and an older man who observes. Bernard wants to be sincere, to act only from what he truly feels. Edouard wants to capture life in a book. Their meeting begins a long argument about whether you can live freely and also write about living.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Bernard Profitendieu
- A clever schoolboy and Olivier's close friend, Bernard leaves home seeking an independent life.
- Olivier Molinier
- Bernard's shy, gifted friend is Edouard's nephew and longs for recognition as a writer.
- Edouard
- Olivier's uncle is a novelist whose journal records his efforts to write about authenticity.
- Comte Robert de Passavant
- A wealthy, fashionable writer, he rivals Edouard and offers Olivier a glamorous literary life.
- Vincent Molinier
- Olivier's older brother is an ambitious young doctor caught in a troubled personal relationship.
- Laura Douviers
- A young married woman in distress, Laura receives kindness from friends rather than those closest to her.
- Georges Molinier
- Olivier's younger brother is a restless schoolboy attracted to secrets and the other boys' dares.
- Boris
- A sensitive boy at the boarding school, Boris is vulnerable among the stronger boys.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 125,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 8 h 20 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Die Falschmünzer
What is The Counterfeiters about?
It follows schoolboys, young men, parents and writers in Paris before the First World War. Its subject is the gap between what people are and what they pretend to be, shown through families, a school and a novelist at work.
Who is Edouard in The Counterfeiters?
Edouard is a novelist who keeps a journal and is trying to write a novel called The Counterfeiters. He is Olivier's uncle, and through his journal we see both the other characters and his own doubts.
What does the title The Counterfeiters mean?
It points to false coins, but also to false people, opinions and feelings. Gide uses counterfeiting as a symbol for anything made to look genuine that has no real value behind it.
When was The Counterfeiters written and is it a true story?
Gide published it in 1925 as Les Faux-monnayeurs. It is fiction, though it draws on the Paris literary world of his day and on events and ideas that interested him.
Is The Counterfeiters hard to read?
No. The story starts with a simple, human moment: a clever schoolboy finds a letter and walks out of his father's house. The narrator speaks plainly, and Edouard's journal lets you follow the people one scene at a time.