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The Desire to Live
First English translation of Le Désir de Vivre by Paul Acker. Originally published in 1907, this 2025 English version, translated by L.B.H. Causey is a novella that tells the tale of Claire Fournier and her struggle to find a living as well as a life she can call her own.
188 pages, ebook
Published March 12, 2025
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November 28, 2025Directly translated as "The Desire to Live", this French novella tucked away in an obscure corner of the Duke's Archives proved ultimately to be worth the not-insignificant amount of effort it took to make it readable for this treasure-seeker.
I won't soon be forgetting Claire Fournier. She works as a conduit to experience afresh those early days of starting on one's own, falling into and crashing out of love, and seeing those around you slip so subtly into that malaise of ennui that they may not even realize the fact. Characterizations are generally well done, and the feel of Dijon, Paris, and the provinces are all distinct. Pacing-wise, Acker manages to keep the plot rolling while also not giving it the dreaded "rushed" feeling. I enjoyed the variety in locations -- Mademoiselle Fournier goes on quite the journey and I always looked forward to the next chapter to see where it would take her.
Before taking on this project, I'd read somewhere this would be a *simple* story, and honestly, it is. Character motivations are clearly laid out and I never had to puzzle through what was happening or why. I enjoyed this as it allowed the characters and plot to shine through while the thematic elements were more easily detected throughout. Those themes don't even need mentioning here, as I'm sure you'll notice them immediately. It made for a rather relaxing read where I could just focus on *feeling with* Claire and not necessarily on *understanding* her.
So, it should be rather obvious that I would recommend *Le Désir de Vivre* and I most certainly do. It's a short, easy read that nonetheless still offers thematic depth and memorable characters with clear motivations. It's literature in every sense of the word and offers plenty to mull over after you finish reading the last page. However, *l'éléphant dans la pièce* is the lack of an official English translation, or of any English translation at all. This would prove quite the impediment to reading a novel if English were the only language you could proficiently read. This was the problem I set out to solve and below is a brief summary.
I purchased an ebook version from the Gyan Books website for $4.29. Since it was just a scan and came in a PDF, I fired up Adobe Acrobat (trial version) and used the OCR (optical character recognition) function to map out the text. I then converted the OCR'd PDF to a Word doc and cleaned up as many errors as I could. Then I uploaded the corrected Word doc to Deepl to convert from French to British English. American English didn't feel right for this story. I then corrected obvious spelling and grammatical errors using the "find and replace" tool, and also fixed the formatting as it was jacked to hell and back. Finally, I began the real work of reading through and adjusting wording to feel natural while trying to not stray too far from Acker's original. The final result is something I found to be not only readable, but actually quite beautiful. Sparse at times yet full of colorful detail at others, I was impressed with how well everything came together.
French copyright law adds an extra 30 years to the usual 70 years granted if the author "mort pour la France", or "died for France". Acker was granted this signifier after dying in 1915, meaning 100 years have passed and his original works are now in the public domain.
After over a year, I've finally made this English translation available to the public. Hopefully others will find this as enjoyable as I did. It was a fun project.
I won't soon be forgetting Claire Fournier. She works as a conduit to experience afresh those early days of starting on one's own, falling into and crashing out of love, and seeing those around you slip so subtly into that malaise of ennui that they may not even realize the fact. Characterizations are generally well done, and the feel of Dijon, Paris, and the provinces are all distinct. Pacing-wise, Acker manages to keep the plot rolling while also not giving it the dreaded "rushed" feeling. I enjoyed the variety in locations -- Mademoiselle Fournier goes on quite the journey and I always looked forward to the next chapter to see where it would take her.
Before taking on this project, I'd read somewhere this would be a *simple* story, and honestly, it is. Character motivations are clearly laid out and I never had to puzzle through what was happening or why. I enjoyed this as it allowed the characters and plot to shine through while the thematic elements were more easily detected throughout. Those themes don't even need mentioning here, as I'm sure you'll notice them immediately. It made for a rather relaxing read where I could just focus on *feeling with* Claire and not necessarily on *understanding* her.
So, it should be rather obvious that I would recommend *Le Désir de Vivre* and I most certainly do. It's a short, easy read that nonetheless still offers thematic depth and memorable characters with clear motivations. It's literature in every sense of the word and offers plenty to mull over after you finish reading the last page. However, *l'éléphant dans la pièce* is the lack of an official English translation, or of any English translation at all. This would prove quite the impediment to reading a novel if English were the only language you could proficiently read. This was the problem I set out to solve and below is a brief summary.
I purchased an ebook version from the Gyan Books website for $4.29. Since it was just a scan and came in a PDF, I fired up Adobe Acrobat (trial version) and used the OCR (optical character recognition) function to map out the text. I then converted the OCR'd PDF to a Word doc and cleaned up as many errors as I could. Then I uploaded the corrected Word doc to Deepl to convert from French to British English. American English didn't feel right for this story. I then corrected obvious spelling and grammatical errors using the "find and replace" tool, and also fixed the formatting as it was jacked to hell and back. Finally, I began the real work of reading through and adjusting wording to feel natural while trying to not stray too far from Acker's original. The final result is something I found to be not only readable, but actually quite beautiful. Sparse at times yet full of colorful detail at others, I was impressed with how well everything came together.
French copyright law adds an extra 30 years to the usual 70 years granted if the author "mort pour la France", or "died for France". Acker was granted this signifier after dying in 1915, meaning 100 years have passed and his original works are now in the public domain.
After over a year, I've finally made this English translation available to the public. Hopefully others will find this as enjoyable as I did. It was a fun project.
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July 11, 2025A snappy read that comes of more like a diary than a narrative.
Claire is experiencing adulthood for the first time, and yearning for more.
In my 20s I really related with that sentiment. Wanting to be free, live my dreams, and love.
That desire and fear of never achieving it caused a panic attack at 25 and a night in the pysch ward.
Life is hard and unfair and throws damn curveballs, but you have to keep moving forward.
(And have some great connections)
Claire is experiencing adulthood for the first time, and yearning for more.
In my 20s I really related with that sentiment. Wanting to be free, live my dreams, and love.
That desire and fear of never achieving it caused a panic attack at 25 and a night in the pysch ward.
Life is hard and unfair and throws damn curveballs, but you have to keep moving forward.
(And have some great connections)
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