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The Long Holiday

1946 novel by Francis Ambrière

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ2399624 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Long Holiday (1946; French: Les Grandes Vacances) is a French novel by Francis Ambrière that chronicles the lives of French prisoners of war between 1940 and 1945. It was first published in 1946 and in that year was also awarded the 1940 Prix Goncourt, which previously had been missed because of the German invasion of France. The novel was translated in 1948 by Elaine P. Halperin as The Long Holiday. It was reissued in a definitive version in 1956 entitled Les Grandes Vacances, 1939-1945.

Editorial summary

“The Long Holiday” enters the record as 1946 novel by Francis Ambrière. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Long, Holiday and novel can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1946, 1940, 1945, 1948—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1946-06-03. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Long, Holiday and novel.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“The Long Holiday” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Long, Holiday and novel provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2399624. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1946, 1940, 1945 and 1948.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Long Holiday”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Long Holiday primary sources, The Long Holiday archive and Long research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Long Holiday”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Long Holiday” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.