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''Dreams of My Russian Summers'' (French: ''Le Testament français'') is a French novel by Andrei Makine, originally published in 1995. It won two top French awards, the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Médicis. The novel is told from the first-person perspective and tells the fictional story of a boy’s memories and experiences with his French grandmother in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and ‘70s. ==Characters== Charlotte Lemonnier also known by her French Christian name translated in Russian as Sharlota Norbertovna. She is the heroine of the story, born in France in the early 1900s in the village of Neuilly-sur-Seine. She is a calm Frenchwoman living in the town of Saranza by the Russian steppe, who teaches her grandchildren, the young boy and girl, of her French and Russian life through memories and newspaper clippings. Narrator is the young boy of the story who grows up throughout the story in the 1960s and '70s. He remains nameless except in the very end of the book. (He is only called Alyosha once by his grandmother.) His nickname by his Russian classmates is “Frantsuz”- the Russian word for Frenchman. He admires his grandmother more than anyone and is confused by the conflicting heritages within him-French and Russian. This conflict characterizes the novel. Narrator's Sister is a nameless character as well as the narrator. She is also Charlotte’s granddaughter. Although she is present in the beginning of the novel accompanying her brother in their visits to Charlotte, she later stays in Moscow for schooling and is not mentioned. Pashka is a peer of the narrator who is also a loner. He is rejected by his classmates and wants nothing to do with them. He avoids society and conformity because he is more interested in nature and the outside world. Although he and the narrator never officially become “friends,” their mutual solitude brings them closer together. Norbert is Charlotte's Russian father. Little is known of him other than he was a doctor who died at age 48, leaving Charlotte and her mother without much money. Albertine is Charlotte's mother and Norbert's wife, 26 years his junior. After Norbert’s death she traveled several times between Siberia and France, taking Charlotte with her. She settles in Siberia with Charlotte battling severe depression and a morphine addiction. After returning to France one last time, she leaves for Siberia, leaving Charlotte with her brother, Vincent. She dies 2 years after reuniting with Charlotte, now nearly 20. Vincent is Charlotte's uncle and a reporter for the French newspaper ''Excelsior''. He took photos of the flood of 1910, and ultimately inspires Charlotte to collect newspaper cuttings. He dies in World War I. Fyodor is Charlotte’s husband who marries her roughly a year after Albertine dies. It is unknown how he and Charlotte met. He works for the government and his position causes him and his family to move all over Russia. He is taken away by the government on New Year’s Eve surrounded by Charlotte and their son and daughter. He is sent to fight in World War II and is reported dead twice, yet he returns to Charlotte after the war only to die less than a year later of his wounds. Sergei is Charlotte's son who is the product of her rape by an unknown man from Uzbekistan. Even though he is not Fyodor's true son he is accepted and loved by him and Charlotte. Mother is the nameless mother of the narrator and Charlotte's daughter. When her son is 14 or 15, she dies suddenly of an illness that she kept secret from her family. Nikolai is the narrator's father and the nameless mother's husband. Little is said of him except that he dies of a heart attack only months after his wife’s death. Aunt is the nameless aunt of the narrator who moves in to care for the family after the death of both parents. She is aggressive, resourceful, and instrumental in showing the young boy the “true” Russia-bitter, violent, and proud. Alex Bond is a Russian businessman who is employed by the narrator (now in his thirties) to see if Charlotte is still alive. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dreams of My Russian Summers」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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