The title is French for "The Great Meaulnes". The difficulties in translating the French grand (meaning big, tall, great, etc.) and le domaine perdu ("lost estate/domain/demesne") have led to a variety of English titles, including The Wanderer, The Lost Domain, Meaulnes: The Lost Domain, The Wanderer or The End of Youth, Le Grand Meaulnes: The Land of the Lost Contentment, The Lost Estate (Le Grand Meaulnes) and Big Meaulnes (Le Grand Meaulnes).
Le Grand Meaulnes inspired the title of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby.[2] Despite this similarity, French translators of Fitzgerald's novel struggled in the same way to render the word "great" and chose Gatsby le magnifique (literally Gatsby the Magnificent).
