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What if the real hero of a journey through Europe is the car itself?
In La 628-E8, Octave Mirbeau takes to the road with his wife, his chauffeur and his Charron motor car. Across France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, rough roads turn a long drive into an adventure. The car’s registration number gives this restless travel book its name.
Mirbeau offers no tidy itinerary. His thoughts roam through landscapes, towns, inns and museums, mixing complaints and jokes with sudden wonder. Speed changes what he sees and how he feels. Encounters with innkeepers, villagers, officials and fellow drivers give his sharp eye for society plenty to work on.
What you’ll discover
- The car as hero Discover how a motor car becomes more than transport: a new way of seeing.
- The thrill of speed Feel the wind and blur of trees as pleasure shares the road with danger.
- People along the road Meet the strangers who draw out Mirbeau’s curiosity, irritation and sharp sense of comedy.
- An art critic’s eye Look at landscapes and museums with a writer whose love of painting shapes his attention.
- Room for sudden wonder Follow a wandering mind that moves from grumbling to delight without following a neat plan.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you love travel diaries with a sharp tongue, early motoring, Belgium and Holland, painters like Rembrandt and Van Gogh, and writers who mix jokes and rage.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- The road replaces the guidebook
- Speed unsettles the traveling mind
- Brossette deserves more than one judgment
- Borders expose the weakness of prejudice
- Every cargo carries a human cost
- Holland holds beauty beside disappointment
- Driving power can weaken human sympathy
- A companion's moods unsettle national judgments
- The journey leaves feelings beyond geography
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La 628-E8 in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
La 628-E8
by Octave Mirbeau · 1907
A French novelist and his mechanic Brossette race a Charron car through Belgium, Holland and Germany.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“The automobile is whim, fancy, incoherence, forgetfulness of everything”
In short
What happens when a famous novelist climbs into a car and admits he can no longer tell where the real world stops and the daydream begins? In April 1905 Octave Mirbeau sets out with friends and his mechanic Brossette in a Charron car, number 628-E. They roll through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, and the book appears in 1907 as part travel diary, part satire and part confession.
La 628-E8 at a glance
- Reading time
- About 8 h 25 min6 h 40 min fast, 10 h slow
- Length
- 120,000 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1907by Octave Mirbeau
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A car shows a country better than a train
Mirbeau opens with a dedication to Fernand Charron, who designed his car. He thanks him for months of freedom and for a knowledge that books cannot give. The automobile, he claims, carries you through landscapes, customs and living history. The machine becomes the hero.
His proof is a single day. He leaves Aurillac in the morning and reaches Poligny by four. At supper in the inn he sits between two farmers who talk about science, schooling and socialism. He has passed from one kind of people to another in hours, and it feels like months.
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Details
- First published
- 1907
- Language
- English
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Mirbeau, Octave. La 628-E8. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/la-628-e8.
Mirbeau, O. (2026). La 628-E8. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/la-628-e8 (Original work published 1907)
Mirbeau, Octave. La 628-E8. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/la-628-e8.
@book{mirbeau2026la,
author = {Mirbeau, Octave},
title = {La 628-E8},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/la-628-e8},
note = {First published 1907}
}
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What is La 628-E8 about?
It is Octave Mirbeau's account of a 1905 motor trip through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany with his mechanic Brossette. It mixes satire, memories, portraits of strangers, art talk and scenes of cruelty and tenderness.
Who is Brossette in La 628-E8?
Brossette is Mirbeau's mechanic and driver, a farrier's son from Touraine. He cheats on petrol bills, steers by instinct and shows real tenderness toward his old mother. He gives the trip much of its humor.
What does the title 628-E8 mean?
It refers to the car in which Mirbeau travels, a Charron whose number plate reads 628-E in the text. The car works almost like a character, carrying the author and his friends from place to place.
The author
Octave Mirbeau
1848–1917 · French novelist and art critic
French writer, art critic and journalist.
“The automobile is whim, fancy, incoherence, forgetfulness of everything”
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