WikiPortallus: Anatole France.html

The son of a bookseller, France spent most of his life around books. His father's bookstore was called the Librairie France. Anatole France studied at the Collège Stanislas and after graduation he helped his father by working at his bookstore. After several years he secured the position of a cataloguer at Bacheline-Deflorenne and at Lemerre, and in 1876 he was appointed a librarian for the French Senate. Ironic, skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. He was elected to the Académie française in 1896 and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1921. He is buried in the Neuilly-sur-Seine community cemetery near Paris.

Career

Anatole France became known after the publication of The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881). Its protagonist, skeptical old scholar Sylvester Bonnard, embodied France's own personality. The novel was praised for its elegant prose and won him a prize from the French Academy. In La rotisserie de la Reine Pedauque (1893) Anatole France ridiculed belief in the occult; and in Les opinions de Jerome Coignard (1893), France captures the atmosphere of the fin de siècle.

Along with Emile Zola, France became involved in the Alfred Dreyfus affair. He signed Zola's manifesto, publicly condemning the indictment of treason against Dreyfus, a Jewish army captain, who was being scapegoated to protect corrupt officials in the army. In 1901, France wrote about the affair in his book Monsieur Bergeret.

France's later works include Penguin Island (1908) which satirizes human nature by depicting the transformation of penguins into humans - after the animals have been baptized in error by the nearsighted Abbot Mael. La Revolte des Anges (the Revolt of the Angels)(1914), often considered France's most profound novel, tells the story of Arcade, the guardian angel of Maurice d'Esparvieu, who falls in love, joins the revolutionary movement of angels, and toward the end realizes that the overthrow of God is meaningless unless in ourselves and in ourselves alone we attack and destroy Ialdabaoth.

In the 1920s France's writings were put on the index of Libri prohibiti.

Works, partial list

The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard, Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard (1881)

The Amethyst Ring

Thaïs (1890)

Le jongleur de Notre Dame (1892)

The Queen Pedauque, La Rotisserie de la Reine Pedauque (1892)

The Red Lily, Le Lys Rouge (1894)

Epicur's Garden (1895)

The Human Tragedy, L'Humaine Tragedie

Crainquebille; Putois; Riquet; et Plusieurs Autres Recits Profitables

Les Sept Femmes de la Barbe-Bleue et Autres Contes Merveilleux

Monsieur Bergeret a Paris (1901)

Le Procurateur de Judée, "The Procurator of Judea" (1902)

Sur la Pierre Blanche (1905)

The Man Who Married A Dumb Wife, a play

Penguin Island, L'Île des Pingouins (1908)

The Life of Joan of Arc, 2 volumes (1908)

Mother of Pearl

The Gods are Athirst, Les Dieux ont Soif (1912)

The Revolt of the Angels, La Revolte des Anges (1914)

Famous sayings

"I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom."

"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread."

"To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream, not only plan but also believe."

"Irony is the gaiety of reflection and the joy of wisdom."

"Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe."

"For every monarchy overthrown the sky becomes less brilliant, because it loses a star. A republic is ugliness set free."

"She fought him off vigorously, scratched, cried that she will die before she submits, but the chevalier paid no attention to her words and took her. Afterwards, she smiled coyly and told him: “Do not think, dear chevalier, that you won me against my will. Better thank our good preacher who reminded me that we are mortal, and a pleasure missed today is missed forever. Now we can proceed, for I missed too many pleasures while being too prudent for my own good”. (Fable by Anatole France.)

"Nine tenths of education is encouragement.”

"All religions breed crime" (Thaïs)

"The people who has no weaknesses are terrible: there is no way of taking adventage of them" (The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard)

"It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion."