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=                        And_Both_Were_Young                         =
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                            Introduction
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'And Both Were Young' is a novel by Madeleine L'Engle originally
published in 1949. It tells the story of an American girl at boarding
school in Switzerland, not long after World War II, and the
relationship she develops with a French boy she meets there, who
cannot remember his past due to trauma he suffered in the war.

In 1983, a revised version of the novel that restored material
originally removed by the author was published under the same title,
but with a new copyright.


                            Plot summary
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In the late 1940s, Connecticut teenager Philippa "Flip" Hunter is sent
to boarding school in Switzerland after recovering from a knee injury
sustained in an automobile accident that also killed her mother. Her
father Philip Hunter, an illustrator of children's books, is planning
to travel around Europe making sketches for a book on lost children,
and he is also being romantically pursued by the beautiful Eunice
Jackman, whom Flip dislikes, partly because Eunice suggested the
boarding school. Although Flip really wants to stay with her father,
he thinks it would be better for her to be in the school where she can
meet more young people and he can easily visit her at Christmas and
Easter. Upon arrival at the school, Flip happens to meet a local boy
named Paul Laurens, in whom she confides some of her unhappiness with
Eunice and with being separated from her father.

After her father and Eunice leave, Flip has trouble fitting in at the
school. She misses her father and her home, is still mourning her
mother, performs poorly at school athletics due to her knee injury,
and does not easily make friends with her sophisticated classmates,
many of whom also come from dysfunctional family backgrounds. Her
classmates mock her and give her the derisive nickname "Pill". In an
effort to get some private time, she visits the school chapel, but
this gets her reprimanded by the administrator and laughed at by the
other girls, She resorts to going for illicit walks off the school
grounds, discovers that Paul lives nearby with his father, and the two
make friends and begin to meet regularly. After a hazing ritual in
which Flip is physically abused by the other girls and then left
blindfolded, gagged and tied to a tree in the woods, she is rescued by
the art teacher, Madame Perceval. Madame Perceval also finds out about
Flip's secret meetings with Paul, who turns out to be her nephew, and
arranges things so that Flip can visit Paul at her home and not have
to break school rules. Flip learns that Paul is a war orphan who was
rescued by Madame Perceval's brother-in-law and that he has lost his
memory of his past due to trauma he suffered in a concentration camp.
Their growing relationship is therapeutic for them both.

As time goes by, Flip's talent for art is recognized by the other
girls and her confidence grows as a result of her friendship with Paul
and Madame Perceval. She begins to make friends and fit in at school.
When she does poorly at skiing lessons and her ski teacher expels her
from the class as being unteachable, Madame Perceval notices that
Flip's skis are actually too long for her and caused the clumsiness,
and provides her with a properly sized pair. Paul and Madame Perceval
secretly teach Flip to ski so she can surprise the other girls. Madame
Perceval over time becomes a mother figure to Flip, who reminds Madame
of her own deceased daughter. Madame eventually decides to leave her
teaching position and work teaching art to children affected by the
war. In the course of this work, she meets Flip's father.

Paul's memory is restored after an encounter with a man falsely
claiming to be his father results in an accidental injury to Flip.
Flip participates in the school ski meet and, when the ski teacher and
her schoolmates express doubts that she can ski at all, much less
race, she reveals her relationship with Paul (and eventually Madame
Perceval) and how she was taught to ski. She ends up performing well
at the meet, but gives up her chance to win a race because she goes
back to help her friend Erna, who has hit a patch of ice and broken an
ankle, and then helps the captain of the ski team get Erna down the
mountain for medical help. As a result, Flip is awarded the silver cup
in front of her schoolmates, Madame Perceval, Paul and her father, who
has come for the occasion. Flip's happiness at seeing her father, on
top of winning the cup and being in a romantic relationship with Paul,
is further enhanced when romance blooms between Philip Hunter and
Madame Perceval.


                          Main characters
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* Philippa "Flip" Hunter -- A young girl who is being sent to boarding
school against her will because of Eunice Jackman
* Philip Hunter -- Flip's frequently absent father
* Eunice Jackman -- A gorgeous widow who is, as Flip says, "lusting
after her father"
* Paul Laurens -- A French boy who has no memory of his past
* Mademoiselle Dragonet -- Flip's boarding school superintendent
* Madame Perceval -- Flip's art teacher, and also Paul's aunt by
adoption
* Erna -- One of Flip's friends at the school


                               Themes
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'And Both Were Young' is loosely based upon L'Engle's own experiences
in boarding school. Philippa "Flip" Hunter's story also closely
parallels that of young pianist Katherine Forrester in L'Engle's 1945
novel 'The Small Rain'.


                               Title
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The title is taken from Lord Byron's poem 'The Dream', which is quoted
at the beginning of some editions of the novel: 'These two, a maiden
and a youth, were there' 'Gazing--the one on all that was beneath'
'Fair as herself--but the Boy gazed on her;' 'And both were young, and
one was beautiful...'


                      Changes to 1983 edition
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'And Both Were Young' is distinctive among L'Engle's works because she
restored some of the original story in 1983, decades after the book's
original 1949 publication. The copyright of the 1949 edition was not
renewed, causing that edition to enter the public domain. The 1983
reissued edition is still under copyright.

L'Engle's first editor softened the relationship between Flip's father
and Eunice Jackman, and Philippa's responses to it. In the original
1949 edition, L'Engle had also removed some material that referenced
death or that the editors found sexually suggestive. The introduction
to the later edition details the changes and why the author felt it
worthwhile to restore her original intent.


                        Crossover characters
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Philippa Hunter is mentioned in L'Engle's 1982 novel 'A Severed Wasp'
when one of her paintings becomes a plot point.


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