The Yorktown Twins, an adventure novel by Moulinois Albert Bonneau set against the backdrop of the Battle of Yorktown, sealing the independence of the United States, is republished. The book will be promoted as part of the Bourbonnais in the Americas program.
The American War of Independence inspired Albert Bonneau (1898-1967), a prolific author from Moulins, one of the last representatives of the classic adventure novel.
The Yorktown Twinswhich his daughter, Odile Bonneau, has just republished with Publifrance, tells the story of a soldier, Maurice de Tiessac, who fights alongside the Marquis de Lafayette. Pursued by the English, he finds refuge in a small town, Williamsburg, where he is taken in in the middle of the night by the two Cromer twin sisters.
The story, full of twists and turns, takes place between September 10, 1781 until the capitulation of the English, on October 18, 1781. Albert Bonneau pays tribute to the Touraine regiment and to the soldiers of the battalions from Saintonge, Soissonnais, Royal-deux-Ponts and Bourbonnais, without whom this victory could not have taken place.
Why the name Bourbonnais is common in North America today
Right on the subject of the three-year cultural program, Bourbonnais in the Americas, initiated by the Allier Departmental Council with partners, including Francophonie en Auvergne Bourbonnais, the Bourbonnais Emulation Society.Odile Bonneau presents the reissue of Albert Bonneau’s book, Les Jumelles de York-Town and Jean-Claude Mairal, coordinator of the Bourbonnais in the Americas project. Photo Corentin Garault
Popular novel, easy to read, but with true historical details
Only the two sisters were invented by the author, to create female characters, all the other characters existed. “My father wrote this book in 1935,” explains Odile Bonneau, who has already had around forty works republished, among the 600 written by Moulinois. Detective novels, novels mixing history and adventure:
“His works sold 300,000 copies at the time, as many as Simenon’s! And some were even reissued. They were always popular novels, easy to read, written like a screenplay, but which fit into the great History in an incredible way, with historical details pushed very far.”
The “Bourbonnais in the Americas” project brings these 18th century Allier soldiers back to life
Receive our leisure newsletter by email and find ideas for outings and activities in your region.
At that time, no internet:
“My father went to the National Library of France, in Paris, to obtain information. In the Thirties, there was no TV, no travel. For any trip, we read, a lot. My father took his readers around the world”
Albert Bonneau is now a subject of study in literature and is the subject of theses at the universities of Clermont Auvergne and Paris Nanterre.
A comic strip coming soon
The Yorktown twins will be highlighted at each event (conferences, meetings, etc.) organized as part of the Bourbonnais in the Americas program. This edition is not the only one in the project: a comic strip dedicated to the crazy epic of the knight Charles-François du Buysson should be published at the end of 2024.
Ariane Bouhours
The Yorktown Twins book. Available in particular at cultural outlets in Moulins, it can be ordered everywhere. 282 pages. €18 (Publifrance).Reissue of Albert Bonneau’s book.
The cultural program “Bourbonnais in the Americas” was initiated by the Department with partners, including Francophonie en Auvergne Bourbonnais, to revive the memory of the Bourbonnais who left across the Atlantic to participate in the War of Independence, from 1777. Bourbonnais Program in the Americas. On September 26 and 27, Franco-American study days will be organized in Moulins, at the Anne-de-Beaujeu museum: “The Bourbonnais between Enlightenment and revolutions (from the 1770s to 1830s): an American dream?”, with the support of the University of Clermont-Auvergne, the Center for History Spaces and Cultures (about ten speakers). The project will be discussed in the Terr’HistoireS festival, literature, heritage and history in Bourbonnais”, in October-November throughout Allier, (the sponsor, Jean Daniel Lafond, born in Désertines, is a writer, philosopher, filmmaker, researcher in Canada). A Bourbonnais route of American Independence highlighting 20 places and characters is also in the pipeline.
