Résumé
Résumé de Au bord du lac : l’Esclave, le Serf, le Chevrier de Lorraine, l’Apprenti
Go deeper: the whole of Au bord du lac : l’Esclave, le Serf, le Chevrier de Lorraine, l’Apprenti
About 3 h 50 min to read.À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
Readers who love historical adventures with young heroes will enjoy these tales of courage and loyalty, and of how freedom and fairness grow from ordinary lives.
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What would you do if you were twelve, in chains, and the only thing you could earn was a handful of coins? In the first of these four tales, a Celtic boy named Arvins walks into Rome among six thousand prisoners and starts saving to buy his mother's freedom.
By the Lakeside was written by Émile Souvestre, a writer from Brittany. He opens with a letter describing a lake where children of every class play side by side, then asks how much suffering made such equality possible. His answer is four tales: a Roman slave, a medieval serf, a goatherd in the days of Joan of Arc, and a mill apprentice in Souvestre's own century. Each hero meets a different bondage and finds a different way out.
Dans ce résumé
- 1Rome buys the captives of ArmoricaFree
- 2A boy learns that freedom has a price
- 3A serf boy loses a meal and a cow
- 4A monk saves Jehan, then Jehan runs
- 5A goatherd meets a girl at Domremy
- 6A secret letter sends Remy toward a mother
- 7An orphan studies by night and hears a plot
- 8Each tale shows a society one step further
- 9Family love and honesty carry the heroes
- 10Four tales, four children, one pattern of telling
Point clé 1 sur 10
Rome buys the captives of Armorica
The first tale opens in Rome, where crowds line the road to the Forum. They wait for a convoy of prisoners from Armorica, the Celtic land beyond the forests. More than six thousand captives pass by. Among them walk Norva, the widow of a chief, and her son Arvins, about twelve years old.
Slave traders feed the captives well, because a healthy slave sells for more. On the day of the sale, the Celts are perfumed and combed, and signs are hung around their necks. The old druid Morgan tells them to shed no tears before their enemies.
Then the buying begins. A freedman bids three hundred sesterces for Arvins and drops a bronze coin into the scale pan. A rough hand drags the boy from Norva, who has no time to kiss his forehead. He calls out that he counts on his own strength and patience.
A conquering society turns people into goods, yet a family can hold together by courage alone. A person can lose everything and still keep a promise to the one he loves.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
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Go deeper: the whole of Au bord du lac : l’Esclave, le Serf, le Chevrier de Lorraine, l’Apprenti
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Questions about Au bord du lac : l’Esclave, le Serf, le Chevrier de Lorraine, l’Apprenti
What is By the Lakeside about?
It gathers four tales of young heroes in different ages: a Celtic slave in Rome, a medieval serf, a goatherd in the time of Joan of Arc and a mill apprentice. Each tale follows a child toward freedom.
Who are the main characters in By the Lakeside?
The heroes are Arvins in The Slave, Jehan in The Serf, Remy in The Goatherd of Lorraine and Frédéric in The Apprentice. Helpers include Nafel, Father Ambroise, Father Cyrille and Mr. Kartmann, and Jeanne appears in the third tale.
Is By the Lakeside a true story?
No, the heroes are invented, though the settings are real. Souvestre builds the tales around Roman slavery, feudal serfdom, the Hundred Years' War and the factories of Mulhouse, and Joan of Arc appears in the third tale.
Why did Souvestre write four tales about children?
In his dedication he says children feel the faults and improvements of a society most sharply, because the strong change their surroundings while the weak endure them. The tales show how each age improved on the last.
What is the main message of the book?
Human progress is slow and costly, and each age gave the weak a little more room. Love, honesty, learning and courage help ordinary people rise, and knowing the past makes us hopeful about the future.
Cite this edition
Souvestre, Émile. By the Lakeside: The Slave, the Serf, the Goatherd of Lorraine, the Apprentice. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/by-the-lakeside-the-slave-the-serf-the-goatherd-of-lorraine-the-apprentice.
Souvestre, É. (2026). By the lakeside: The slave, the serf, the goatherd of Lorraine, the apprentice. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/by-the-lakeside-the-slave-the-serf-the-goatherd-of-lorraine-the-apprentice
Souvestre, Émile. By the Lakeside: The Slave, the Serf, the Goatherd of Lorraine, the Apprentice. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/by-the-lakeside-the-slave-the-serf-the-goatherd-of-lorraine-the-apprentice.
@book{souvestre2026by,
author = {Souvestre, Émile},
title = {By the Lakeside: The Slave, the Serf, the Goatherd of Lorraine, the Apprentice},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/by-the-lakeside-the-slave-the-serf-the-goatherd-of-lorraine-the-apprentice}
}
