''The Foundling Boy'' is a 1975 novel by the French writer Michel Déon. The original French title is ''Le jeune homme vert'', which means "the green young man". It tells the story of a boy who is found at the doorstep of a childless couple in 1919, and follows the naive boy through his education and travels during the interwar period. The book was published in English in 2013, translated by Julian Evans. It was followed by the sequel ''

The Foundling's War ''The Foundling's War'' is a 1977 novel by the French writer Michel Déon. Its French title is ''les Vingt ans du jeune homme vert'', which means "the twenty years of the green young man". It is set in occupied Paris during World War II and follow ...

'' in 1977. It was the basis for a French television series starring Philippe Deplanche, which ran in six episodes on

Antenne 2 France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews. Since 3:20 CET on 7 Ap ...

from 29 June 1979.

Reception

Anthony Cummins wrote for ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

'' in 2014: "There's an infectious, near-magical sense that anything might happen in this novel. ... There’s a nod to Flaubert's ''

Sentimental Education ''Sentimental Education'' (French: ''L'Éducation sentimentale'', 1869) is a novel by Gustave Flaubert. Considered one of the most influential novels of the 19th century, it was praised by contemporaries such as George Sand and Émile Zola, but ...

'' and more than a shade of

Alain-Fournier Alain-Fournier () was the pseudonym of Henri-Alban Fournier (3 October 1886 – 22 September 1914Mémoi ...

's ''

Le Grand Meaulnes ''Le Grand Meaulnes'' () is the only novel by French author Alain-Fournier, who was killed in the first month of World War I. The novel, published in 1913, a year before the author's death, is somewhat autobiographical – especially the name of th ...

'' as Jean grows up, mired in longing, uninterested in the political upheavals that Déon notes assiduously. ... éon'snovel leaves you feeling better about life, not worse, which might be part of why it hasn't previously been translated." The same year, Diane Johnson of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' compared the novel to ''

Tom Jones Tom Jones may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Tom Jones (singer) (born 1940), Welsh singer * Tom Jones (writer) (1928–2023), American librettist and lyricist *''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', a novel by Henry Fielding published in ...

'' by Henry Fielding: "As with all such accounts, this one appeals to our inner orphan, the sense we have that we are alone and have a lot to learn. Also like ''Tom Jones'', it's funny. ... If it seems strange for Déon, writing in the mid-70s, to resurrect Fielding, his impulse might have had something to do with the political situation at the time, still roiled by the aftermath of the civil unrest of 1968. As we read ''Tom Jones'', we are more or less ignorant of or indifferent to the political climate of Tom's and Fielding's times — Jacobite rebellions in 18th-century England — but the world of France in 1975, like the world of the novel between the wars, was marked by the longstanding right-left divisions that had been apparent since the

Dreyfus Affair The Dreyfus affair (french: affaire Dreyfus, ) was a political scandal that divided the French Third Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francop ...

of the 1890s."

References

External links

''The Foundling Boy''
at the French publisher's website
''The Foundling Boy''
at the British publisher's website {{DEFAULTSORT:Foundling Boy 1975 French novels French novels adapted into films French-language novels Novels by Michel Déon Novels set in the 1920s Novels set in the 1930s Éditions Gallimard books