15 h 2 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 15 h 2 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
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
For readers who love travel writing with a strong voice, art lovers who like Rembrandt and van Gogh, and anyone curious about Europe in 1905 as seen from a car.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A journey told as dreams, not facts
- Brossette, the mechanic who steals and loves
- France's dead towns and a stranded family
- Brussels, a comic capital with a dark shop window
- Ports, boats and a refugee's story in Antwerp
- Holland, water, painters and a friend who lives on dreams
- The wildlife of the roads, and the motorist as beast
- Germany and the Emperor, as told over wine
- Balzac in Cologne and a homeward border
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- Audiobook
- 15 h 2 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 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.
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La 628-E8
by Octave Mirbeau · 1907
Octave Mirbeau and his mechanic Brossette drive car 628-E through Holland and Germany, and every stop becomes a story.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What happens when a famous writer climbs into a car and simply goes? In La 628-E, Octave Mirbeau drives from France through Belgium, Holland and Germany with his mechanic Brossette, and the road keeps turning into dreams, portraits and quarrels.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A journey told as dreams, not facts
Mirbeau begins by admitting that his journal is not a reliable record. It mixes memories, daydreams and real roads, and he cannot always tell which is which. He promises no statistics, no history lessons and no notes copied from a guidebook.
He sets out on an April morning in 1905 in a C.-G.-V. car built by Fernand Charron, the friend to whom the book is dedicated. The car carries the number 628-E and travels through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. Mirbeau calls the passion for speed a disease, a nervous fever that makes a man rush through thinking, feeling and loving. To show it, he describes a trip to Amsterdam where he races through museums, canals and the harbor in a blur, then begs to leave the next morning.
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What is La 628-E about?
It is Octave Mirbeau's account of an automobile trip in 1905 through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. He mixes travel scenes, portraits, art talk, jokes and anger rather than giving a plain guide.
What does 628-E mean?
It is the number plate of the author's C.-G.-V. car, built by Fernand Charron. In the book the car almost becomes a character, carrying Mirbeau, Brossette and friends from country to country.
Who is Brossette?
Brossette is Mirbeau's mechanic and driver. He is a cheerful, slightly dishonest man from Touraine who pads the fuel bills, never needs a map, and complains about every foreign country.
The author
Octave Mirbeau
1848–1917 · French novelist and art critic
French writer, art critic and journalist.
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