User:Stadtpark/Le Chercheur d'or

Le Chercheur d'or is the title of a novel written in French by French author and Nobel laureate J. M. G. Le Clézio and translated into English as The prospector by Carol Marks and published by David R. Godine,Boston.

Plot introduction
Alexis L'Estang becomes obsessed with finding the treasure of the legendary Unknown Corsair on the island of Mauritius.The New York Times notes Le Clézio’s family had ties to Mauritius,which was a French colony.

J. M. G. Le Clézio wrote: For as long as I can remember, I was waiting for the seaThe child recalls the sea around the island of Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean. The author situated the plot of this book in the village of Anse aux Anglais.

Present Tense
David Gascoyne notes that the present tense seems to be more fre­quently employed by modern French novelists than by their British or American counterparts.He then wrote that few contemporary writers can have resorted to it so consistently as Le Clézio.Concomitant with his absorption in a continuous present is an impulse to unrestrained exten­sion.

Translating J.M.G. Le Clezio
Alison Anderson published this piece in World Literature Today .She is the translator of J. M. G. Le Clezio's 1991 novel Onitsha. Alison Anderson finds that the paradox of every translator's life is that he or she must betray the thing most loved: the author's language, the author's work. When Alison Anderson first read The Prospector some years ago, I was spellbound by the atmosphere which Le Clezio evokes. To move from that atmosphere, which is also one of words, of art, into a language foreign to the author's intimate mode of expression can only be a betrayal of a kind. The old straw - traduttore, traditore. I enjoy reading Le Clezio in French; I enjoy translating him into English. There is something about the re-creation of an author's world which is very heady and invigorating, along with the manipulation of words; one always hopes one will not get carried away during this process and betray the author's intention

Obsessive searching for the gold of Pirates
"Comme il est long, le temps de la mer!As time seems to be longer,when the sea is measuring time exclaims the narrator of his latest novel, the Mauritian Alexis L'Estang, resuming his obsessive search for pirate gold in the Indian Ocean on returning from service in the tren­ches of the First World War.To recover his family's paradise lost, the adult Ali embarks upon a hunt for the pirate's gold. "I left to put an end to the dream, in order that my life might begin. I am going to take this journey to its conclusion. I know that I will find something.The protagonist of The prospectorsearches for buried treasure with a beautiful island girl in an effort both to restore his family’s fortunes and to reclaim his idyllic childhood; this second idyll is interrupted by World War I.

Begin
His story begins in 1892, when he is eight, and spans thirty years; yet despite the dates, the novel is in no sense a historical one, but could be most fittingly described as a fable.

Characters
Its characters are of quasi-archetypal simplicity, and they communicate in dialogue of taciturn breviloquence.

Ouma
Apart from the narrator's abiding but tenuous relationship with his sister Laure, the novel's principal human interest centres on his chastely erotic idyll with Ouma, the young native girl or "manaf" he finds on the island of Rodrigues, to which plans left him by his father have led him in search of a hoard of plundered gold concealed there by a legendary corsair. Ouma is an archetype of the order of W. H. Hudson's Rima, or Rider Haggard's "Nada the Lily" (referred to early in the book as the heroine of the favourite reading-matter of Alexis and his sister)( The Times Literary Supplement of October 4, 1985)

visions of his ideal childhood
Reed Business Information, Inc. noted that Le Clezio, who is best known for his Prix Renaudot-winning first novel, The Interrogation (1963), has created a gentle portrayal of a man haunted by visions of his ideal childhood in Le Chercheur d'or.

financial ruin
The round of seemingly endless summer seashore days and lessons at the knee of their mother, comes to an end for Alexis L'Etang and his sister Laure with their father's financial ruin and his death. The elder L'Etang's one legacy is an obsession with the treasure of the "Unknown Corsair," supposedly buried on Rodrigues Island. Determined to recapture their earlier prosperity, Alexis leaves for Rodrigues in 1910, where he is bewitched by the quest for the treasure, by the soothing routine of sunny days and by the love of a native girl, Ouma. Four years later his second idyll is interrupted by WW I and Alexis leaves the Indian Ocean for the very different geography of Ypres and the Somme. It is clear that Le Clezio, whose ancestor was a French corsair who settled on Mauritius, loves his setting--maybe too much. His writing is deeply evocative and descriptive even when simply furthering the plot, but many of his lengthy descriptions of Mauritius, Rodrigues and Alexis's ocean voyages between them are overwrought}}

Susan Ireland wrote that with its echoes of other famous quests, Alexis's search takes on mythical proportions and brings him face-to-face with the elemental forces of nature. The lyrical descriptions of the land and seascapes powerfully convey the entrancing rhythm of the waves that carry him on his journey and make The Prospector a novel of intense beauty}}.Dominic Di Bernardi wrote that this novel the Prospector offers a wonderful one-volume compendium of all the grand myths rooted in the European colonial experience, combining elements from Paul et Virginie, Robinson Crusoe, and Indiana Jones. Alexis, known as Ali, and his beloved sister, Laure, live in an Eden nestled on the island of Mauritius. A child drawn to nature, he is nevertheless most enthralled by his father's dreams of a privateer's treasure.

ELECTRICITY
Yet this same father's vision of bringing electricity to the island leads to the family's ruin (thanks to a ferocious hurricane, brilliantly described).

Begin
The story begins in 1892 in the draft of Boucan, in the Mauritius .Alexis was then eight years old and lives happily with his older sister Laura, a play in the forest and the "tree of good and evil" and to walk with his friend Denis, a young descendant of black slaves in Mauritius, which he discovered the secrets of nature and introduced him to his first trip to sea experience, condemned by the parents of Alexis, founder and prove dramatic

focus on his life
The joy Alexis on Wednesday will focus on his life, but it is now forbidden to review Denis

The family is not rich
The family is not rich, the father is taken to concerns about money and trying to install a generator of electricity in this remote part of the island to overcome debts

education.
Mother, Mam, housewife, takes care of their education.

cyclone
Shortly after a cyclone ravaged much of the island, the family home, especially the generator, the last hope for success of the father

Forest Side
The family, ruined, must go to Forest Side

French
Here, the young Alexis is placed in a boarding school and finds a passion for the stories pirates

death of his father
On the death of his father, he discovered the papers in it the potential existence of a treasure, "the treasure of the Pirate", hidden in the handle to the English on the island of Rodrigues

accountant
The years go by, Alexis grows and must work as an accountant in a company run by his uncle.

Zeta
In 1910, called by the sea and the adventure, Alexis embarked on Zeta, a schooner three-masted Captain Bradmer and a helmsman Comoros where he finally finds happiness as expected to navigate.

St. Brandon
After its passage through the island with rats, the island Frégate and the earthly paradise of St. Brandon, he manages to Rodrigues.

seek the treasure
Alexis starts to seek the treasure.

landmarks left by Corsaire
The papers of his father used to discover different landmarks left by Corsaire.

boreholes
He steps up and boreholes with the assistance of two people.

years
The unsuccessful search lasted for years.

Ouma
One day after an accident, Alexis meeting Ouma, a Manaf high in Paris and who cares that he will fall in love.

caches of treasure
He finally discovered several caches of treasure, but they are always empty.

plans to leave
He plans to leave and find the date it has spent four years on the island!

the First World War
At the announcement of the beginning of the First World War, in 1914, Alexis agrees voluntarily in the British army.

voluntarily in the British army
Alexis agrees voluntarily in the British army. He left for Europe, and will be battles of Ypres during the winter 1915 and the Somme in the autumn of 1916.

survived the fighting
Miraculously survived the fighting, while all his comrades fall, he was finally repatriated after catch typhus.

imaginary achievements
He returns to see Laure Forest Side where he is recognized as a hero during the war because of imaginary achievements.

His mother became blind
His mother became blind and constantly think about what his past was happy in the house of Boucan.

quest for the treasure
After a few months in Mauritius, where Alexis is working on the monitoring of farmers in the sugar cane fields, he decided to leave in 1919 to the island of Rodrigues to resume its quest for the treasure and return Ouma.

1922
Treasury Ouma and still nothing is gone, the year 1922 arrives.

death of Mam
He thinks he found something when a letter from Laure learn the death of Mam and next.

A hurricane
A hurricane ravaged the island, destroyed his camp Anse des Anglais and thrown on the reef, which crossed the Zéta around.

final days of his mother
It finally returns on Mauritius to be present during the final days of his mother. It eventually dies.

cane plantations
Alexis, however, seen by chance Ouma who now works in the cane plantations on the island. Laure enters orders and Alexis returned to the scene of his childhood with Ouma.

Mananava
He lives happily with her a few months Mananava near Indentation Boucan of his childhood, watching straw-in-queue.

meteor storm
During a meteor storm, Ouma leave Alexis and share join his younger brother to the refugee camp guarded by the British army.

DeportaTIOn
She was deported to Rodrigues, his island home. Elle est déportée vers Rodrigues, son île d'origine. Alexis burns his last paper for the Treasury to "be free".

Ending
The book ends with the dream of Alexis: his ship, the Argo with Ouma.

Interview with Daniel E. Pritchard of Godine
Taken from the Quarterly Conversation Issue 14 SE: About how many books do you publish per year? Daniel E. Pritchard: We publish around 30 new titles each year, and have a backlist that refuses to accept the term “Out of Print.” They just keep moving, even if it's slow. SE: Godine publishes Le Clezio’s novel The Prospector. Have you read it? Daniel E. Pritchard : I really enjoyed it, which was surprising only because I knew a bit about his style and it isn't normally what I'm drawn towards. But it is beautifully written, and translated, and by the end the book has led you to a kind of. . . well, I liked it and I'll leave it at that. The best way to know is just to read it. And if you can't buy it, ask your library to order it. They do that. Free books! The Boston Public Library is practically my living room