2 h 28 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
How do you love when everything you love is passing?
In Marcel Schwob’s The Book of Monelle, a young girl speaks in strange, tender sayings that stay with the man who loves her. Part fable, part prose poem, part sermon, this short work of French Symbolist prose follows no straight path. It asks how anyone can live fully when love and time refuse to stand still.
Monelle’s spoken teachings give way to separate tales of other girls, each with her own nature and desires. Her words call for life in the present and the destruction of fixed ideas. Across these encounters, love takes different forms, while absence gives the book its haunted mood. For the man who remembers Monelle, her sayings keep changing their meaning.
What you’ll discover
- The present moment Meet Monelle’s bold claim that only the present is real, spoken with a child’s plainness.
- What must fall away Explore a call to break the old laws, customs, and ideas that trap the living.
- Love’s many faces Encounter girls whose separate tales give fleeting love different shapes and desires.
- Memory as a teacher Follow the words a man carries, and feel how absence changes their meaning.
- Between fable and poem Enter dreamlike scenes where tender sayings matter more than a fast, clear plot.
Who will love it
For readers who love poetic, dreamlike writing, French Symbolism and the late nineteenth century, and anyone who enjoys short books about love and time.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Live inside the present moment
- Destroy what has hardened around you
- Love comes in many fleeting forms
- Loss turns memory into a teacher
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 2 h 28 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 4 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
eBooks and audiobooks open right away. Download EPUB or PDF, or send the book to your Kindle. Every printed copy is made when you order it and shipped worldwide; shipping is shown at checkout.
How it works
- Start free. Nothing to pay today; the eBook of this book is yours to keep.
- Read, listen and print. 200,000+ classics as eBook, large-print eBook, audiobook and 15-minute summary, and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print, 5 accounts for the price of one.
- We remind you first. Free for 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment. Then USD 0.14 a day in your first year on the yearly plan and USD 0.27 a day after, or USD 0.66 a day on the monthly plan. Cancel online in two clicks.
Bought on its own? Every eBook, audiobook and printed book you buy without the plan carries our 30-day money-back guarantee.
25 languages, side by side
Read and hear The Book of Monelle in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
The Book of Monelle
by Marcel Schwob · 1894
Monelle’s tender sayings ask a man who loves her how to live when everything is passing.
Easy read2–5 hours to read25 languages
Excellent
- Read or listen
- 25 languages, side by side
- Print and large print at cost
- 5 accounts for the price of one
Free for 3 months · starts right away, on any device
Read free3 months free · cancel anytimeFree for 3 months, then USD 0.14 a dayCancel anytimeHow it works
In short
The Book of Monelle is a short work of French Symbolist prose by Marcel Schwob, first published in 1894. It is part fable, part prose poem, part sermon.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Live inside the present moment
The book's first and strongest claim is that only the present is real. Monelle speaks as a child speaks, plainly and without fear, yet her words carry a kind of prophecy. For her, the past is already gone and the future is not yet here. What a person has is now, and now does not wait.
This idea shapes the whole book. A life built on memory or on plans is a life lived away from itself. Schwob suggests that we cling to old versions of ourselves and to hopes that never come, and that this clinging dulls us. Monelle does not argue the point like a philosopher. She states it, and the strangeness of her voice lets the idea strike harder.
Free for 3 months · Cancel anytime
Free gifts
USD 580 in free gifts when you start
Every book in every format and in 25 languages, 5 accounts for the price of one. Nothing to pay today.
- 200,000+ classic eBooksIn 25 languages, side by side
USD 170FREE - Every audiobookIn 25 languages, any device
USD 120FREE - 15-minute summariesRead or listen, in 25 languages
USD 60FREE - Print at cost, no markupPaperback, hardcover, large print
USD 60FREE - 5 accounts for the price of oneA shelf for everyone at home
USD 170FREE - A part in rebuilding the libraryNew languages and books for all
FREE
Questions about The Book of Monelle
Can I read it free?
Yes. The first key idea of the 15-minute summary is free with no sign-up. Start free and the whole book is yours for 3 months, with the eBook to keep, plus 200,000+ more classics and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print. Nothing to pay today: we email you 7 days before your first payment, and you can cancel online in two clicks.
Can I buy the printed book?
Soon. The paperback, hardcover and large print editions are being prepared. Choose Paperback or Hardcover above, leave your email, and we tell you the day you can order it, printed at cost.
How many accounts do I get?
Five, for the price of one: you and 4 more people, each with their own login, shelf and their own place in every book.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Cancel online in two clicks at any time and nothing more is charged. Nothing is charged in your first 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment.
What is The Book of Monelle about?
It is a short Symbolist fable about a man who loves a young girl named Monelle and carries her sayings with him. Its themes are the present moment, the end of fixed things, and the changing nature of love.
Who was Marcel Schwob?
Schwob was a French writer, critic and translator who died in 1905. He was admired for short, strange, learned fiction and is also known for Imaginary Lives, a book of invented short biographies.
When was The Book of Monelle written?
It was first published in 1894, in the Symbolist period of French literature. It is a work of imagination, a fable and prose poem, not a true story or a memoir.
More like this
Our mission
The library burned once. We are building it back.
Every great book, in every language and every format, for every family. Every plan helps pay for new languages, new audiobooks and books for readers who have never had them. Join the movement.
Read our story- Every language25 languages today, side by side, and more every year
- No wastePrinted on demand: no warehouses, no unsold stock, no pulped copies
- For everyonePaperback, hardcover and large print at the cost of printing
