Anatole France

Anatole France (French: [anatɔl fʁɑ̃s]; born François-

Anatole Thibault [frɑ̃swa anatɔl tibo]; 16 April 1844 Anatole France
– 12 October 1924) was a French poet, journalist, and
novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical,
he was considered in his day the ideal French man of
letters.[1] He was a member of the Académie
Française, and won the 1921 Nobel Prize in Literature
"in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements,
characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a
profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic
temperament".[2]

France is also widely believed to be the model for

narrator Marcel's literary idol Bergotte in Marcel
Proust's In Search of Lost Time.[3]

Born François-Anatole Thibault

Early years 16 April 1844
Paris, France
The son of a bookseller, France, a bibliophile,[4] spent Died 12 October 1924 (aged 80)
most of his life around books. His father's bookstore Tours, France
specialized in books and papers on the French Occupation Novelist
Revolution and was frequented by many writers and Notable awards Nobel Prize in Literature
scholars. France studied at the Collège Stanislas, a 1921
private Catholic school, and after graduation he helped Signature
his father by working in his bookstore.[5] After several
years, he secured the position of cataloguer at
Bacheline-Deflorenne and at Lemerre. In 1876, he was
appointed librarian for the French Senate.[6]

Literary career
France began his literary career as a poet and a journalist. In 1869, Le Parnasse contemporain published
one of his poems, "La Part de Madeleine". In 1875, he sat on the committee in charge of the third
Parnasse contemporain compilation. As a journalist, from 1867, he wrote many articles and notices. He
became known with the novel Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard (1881).[7] 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 Académie Française.[8]
 In La Rotisserie de la Reine Pedauque (1893) France ridiculed
belief in the occult, and in Les Opinions de Jérôme Coignard
(1893), France captured the atmosphere of the fin de siècle. He
was elected to the Académie Française in 1896.[9]

France took a part in the Dreyfus affair. He signed Émile Zola's

manifesto supporting Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer who
had been falsely convicted of espionage.[10] France wrote about
the affair in his 1901 novel Monsieur Bergeret.

France's later works include Penguin Island (L'Île des Pingouins,

1908) which satirizes human nature by depicting the
transformation of penguins into humans – after the birds have
been baptized by mistake by the almost-blind Abbot Mael. It is a
satirical history of France, starting in Medieval times, going on to
the author's own time with special attention to the Dreyfus affair
and concluding with a dystopian future. The Gods Are Athirst (Les
dieux ont soif, 1912) is a novel, set in Paris during the French
Revolution, about a true-believing follower of Maximilien
Robespierre and his contribution to the bloody events of the Reign
of Terror of 1793–94. It is a wake-up call against political and
ideological fanaticism and explores various other philosophical
approaches to the events of the time. The Revolt of the Angels (La
Revolte des Anges, 1914) is often considered France's most
profound and ironic novel. Loosely based on the Christian
France's home, 5 villa Saïd, 1894– understanding of the War in Heaven, it tells the story of Arcade,
1924 the guardian angel of Maurice d'Esparvieu. Bored because Bishop
d'Esparvieu is sinless, Arcade begins reading the bishop's books
on theology and becomes an atheist. He moves to Paris, meets a
woman, falls in love, and loses his virginity causing his wings to fall off, joins the revolutionary
movement of fallen angels, and meets the Devil, who realizes that if he overthrew God, he would become
just like God. Arcade realizes that replacing God with another is meaningless unless "in ourselves and in
ourselves alone we attack and destroy Ialdabaoth." "Ialdabaoth", according to France, is God's secret
name and means "the child who wanders".

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921. He died on 13 October 1924[1] and is buried in the Neuilly-sur-
Seine Old Communal Cemetery near Paris.

On 31 May 1922, France's entire works were put on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum ("List of
Prohibited Books") of the Catholic Church.[11] He regarded this as a "distinction".[12] This Index was
abolished in 1966.

Personal life
In 1877, France married Valérie Guérin de Sauville, a granddaughter of Jean-Urbain Guérin, a miniaturist
who painted Louis XVI.[13] Their daughter Suzanne was born in 1881 (and died in 1918).
France's relations with women were always turbulent, and in 1888
he began a relationship with Madame Arman de Caillavet, who
conducted a celebrated literary salon of the Third Republic. The
affair lasted until shortly before her death in 1910.[13]

After his divorce, in 1893, France had many liaisons, notably with
a Madame Gagey, who committed suicide in 1911.[14]

In 1920, France married for the second time, to Emma

Laprévotte.[15]

France had socialist sympathies and was an outspoken supporter

of the 1917 Russian Revolution. However, he also vocally
defended the institution of monarchy as more inclined to peace
than bourgeois democracy, saying in relation to efforts to end the
First World War that "a king of France, yes a king, would have had
pity on our poor, exhausted, bloodied nation. However, democracy France c. 1921
is without a heart and without entrails. When serving the powers
of money, it is pitiless and inhuman."[16] In 1920, he gave his
support to the newly founded French Communist Party.[17] In his book The Red Lily, France famously
wrote, "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the
streets, and to steal loaves of bread."[18]

Reputation
The English writer George Orwell defended France and declared that his work remained very readable,
and that "it is unquestionable that he was attacked partly from political motives".[19]

Works

Poetry
Les Légions de Varus, poem published in 1867 in the Gazette rimée.
Poèmes dorés (1873)
Les Noces corinthiennes (The Bride of Corinth) (1876)

Prose fiction
Jocaste et le chat maigre (Jocasta and the Famished Cat) (1879)
Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard (The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard) (1881)
Les Désirs de Jean Servien (The Aspirations of Jean Servien) (1882)
Abeille (Honey-Bee) (1883)
Balthasar (1889)
Thaïs (1890)
 L'Étui de nacre (Mother of Pearl) (1892)
La Rôtisserie de la reine Pédauque (At the Sign of the
Reine Pédauque) (1892)
Nos Enfants (Our Children: Scenes from the Country
and the Town) (1886) illustrated by Louis-Maurice Boutet
de Monvel
Les Opinions de Jérôme Coignard (The Opinions of
Jerome Coignard) (1893)
Le Lys rouge (The Red Lily) (1894)
Le Puits de Sainte Claire (The Well of Saint Clare)
(1895)
L'Histoire contemporaine (A Chronicle of Our Own
Times)
1: L'Orme du mail (The Elm-Tree on the Mall) (1897)
2: Le Mannequin d'osier (The Wicker-Work Woman)
(1897)
3: L'Anneau d'améthyste (The Amethyst Ring) (1899)
4: Monsieur Bergeret à Paris (Monsieur Bergeret in
Paris) (1901) France pictured by Jean Baptiste
Clio (1900) Guth for Vanity Fair, 1909

Histoire comique (A Mummer's Tale) (1903)

Sur la pierre blanche (The White Stone) (1905)
L'Affaire Crainquebille (1901)
L'Île des Pingouins (Penguin Island) (1908)
Les Contes de Jacques Tournebroche (The Merrie Tales
of Jacques Tournebroche) (1908)
Les Sept Femmes de Barbe bleue et autres contes
merveilleux (The Seven Wives of Bluebeard and Other
Marvelous Tales) (1909)
Bee The Princess of the Dwarfs (1912)
Les dieux ont soif (The Gods Are Athirst) (1912)
La Révolte des anges (The Revolt of the Angels) (1914)
Marguerite (1920) illustrated by Fernand Siméon

Memoirs
Nos Enfants, illustrations by Louis-
Le Livre de mon ami (My Friend's Book) (1885) Maurice Boutet de Monvel (1900)
Pierre Nozière (1899)
Le Petit Pierre (Little Pierre) (1918)
La Vie en fleur (The Bloom of Life) (1922)

Plays
Au petit bonheur (1898)
Crainquebille (1903)
La Comédie de celui qui épousa une femme muette (The Man Who Married A Dumb Wife)
(1908)
 Le Mannequin d'osier (The Wicker Woman) (1928)

Historical biography
Vie de Jeanne d'Arc (The Life of Joan of Arc) (1908)

Literary criticism
Alfred de Vigny (1869)
Le Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte (1888)
Le Génie Latin (The Latin Genius) (1909)

Social criticism
Le Jardin d'Épicure (The Garden of Epicurus) (1895)
Opinions sociales (1902)
Le Parti noir (1904)
Vers les temps meilleurs (1906)
Sur la voie glorieuse (1915)
Trente ans de vie sociale, in four volumes, (1949, 1953, 1964, 1973)

References
1. "Anatole France, Great Author, Dies (https://www.nytimes.com/1924/10/13/archives/anatole-
france-great-author-dies-veteran-philosopher-jacques.html)", The New York Times, October
13, 1924, p.1
2. "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1921" (https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1921/franc
e/facts/). www.nobelprize.org. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
3. "Marcel Proust: A Life, by Edmund White" (http://tenpagesormore.blogspot.com/2010/07/3-
marcel-proust-life-by-edmund-white-pp.html). 12 July 2010. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
4. "Anatole France" (https://web.archive.org/web/20121113174349/http://benonsensical.com/bl
og/tag/famous-bibliophiles). benonsensical. 24 July 2010. Archived from the original (http://b
enonsensical.com/blog/tag/famous-bibliophiles) on 13 November 2012. Retrieved 30 July
2012.
5. Tylden-Wright, David (1967). Anatole France. New York: Walker and Company. p. 37.
6. Tylden-Wright, David (1967). Anatole France. New York: Walker and Company. p. 55.
7. "France, Anatole" (https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/french-literature-
biographies/anatole-france). Encyclopedia.Com, Cengage. 2018. Retrieved 28 September
2023.
8. "Book awards: Prix Montyon de l'Académie française: Book awards by cover" (https://www.li
brarything.com/bookaward/Prix+Montyon+de+l%27Acad%C3%A9mie+fran%C3%A7aise).
LibraryThing. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
9. Virtanen, Reino (1968). Anatole France. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc. p. 88.
10. Tekijä, jonka. Anatole France (1844-1924)- pseudonym for Jacques Anatole Francois
Thibault (http://authorscalendar.info/afrance.htm). Authors’ Calendar. books and writers.
Retrieved 11 June 2022.
11. Halsall, Paul (May 1998). "Modern History Sourcebook: Index librorum prohibitorum, 1557–
1966 (Index of Prohibited Books)" (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/indexlibrorum.html).
Internet History Sourcebooks Project (Fordham University).
12. "ANATOLE FRANCE REGARDS IT AS A "DISTINCTION" TO HAVE HIS BOOKS BANNED
BY THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH" (https://archive.org/details/sim_current-opinion_1922-08
_73_2/page/295/mode/1up?q=Anatole). Current Opinion. September 1922. p. 295.
Retrieved 30 September 2023.
13. Édouard Leduc (2004). Anatole France avant l'oubli (https://books.google.com/books?id=lR
pAHOLmpF4C&pg=PA222). Éditions Publibook. pp. 219, 222–. ISBN 978-2-7483-0397-1.
14. Leduc, Edouard (2006). Anatole France avant l'oubli (https://books.google.com/books?id=lR
pAHOLmpF4C&pg=PA223) (in French). Editions Publibook. p. 223. ISBN 9782748303971.
15. Lahy-Hollebecque, M. (1924). Anatole France et la femme 252 pp. Baudinière.
16. Original text here. Marcel Le Goff, Anatole France à La Béchellerie - Propos et souvenirs
1914-1924 (Léo Delteil, Paris, 1924), p. 166.
17. "Anatole France" (http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Anatole+France). The Free
Dictionary. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
18. Go, Johann J. (2020). "Structure, choice, and responsibility". Ethics & Behavior. 30 (3):
230–246. doi:10.1080/10508422.2019.1620610 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F10508422.201
9.1620610). S2CID 197698306 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:197698306).
19. Harrison, Bernard (29 December 2014b). What Is Fiction For?: Literary Humanism Restored
(https://books.google.com/books?id=ec1uBgAAQBAJ). Indiana University Press.
ISBN 9780253014122. Retrieved 28 September 2023.

External links
Works by Anatole France in eBook form (https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/anatole-france)
at Standard Ebooks
Works by Anatole France (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/755) at Project
Gutenberg
List of Works (http://noblib.internet-box.ch/NLEW.php?authorid=21)
Works by or about Anatole France (https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subject%
3A%22France%2C%20Anatole%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Anatole%20France%22%2
0OR%20creator%3A%22France%2C%20Anatole%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Anatol
e%20France%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22France%2C%20A%2E%22%20OR%20title%
3A%22Anatole%20France%22%20OR%20description%3A%22France%2C%20Anatole%2
2%20OR%20description%3A%22Anatole%20France%22%29%20OR%20%28%221844-19
24%22%20AND%20France%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29) at the
Internet Archive
Works by Anatole France (https://librivox.org/author/890) at LibriVox (public domain
audiobooks)
Works by Anatole France (https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL91522A) at Open Library
Anatole France (https://www.nobelprize.org/laureate/590) on Nobelprize.org
"Anatole France, Nobel Prize Winner" (https://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/books/nobel
-France.pdf) by Herbert S. Gorman, The New York Times, 20 November 1921
Correspondence with architect Jean-Paul Oury (http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/f/france_
a.htm) at Syracuse University
Université McGill: le roman selon les romanciers (http://tsar.mcgill.ca/bibliographie/Anatole_
France)
Anatole France, his work in audio version (http://www.litteratureaudio.com/livres-audio-gratui
ts-mp3/tag/anatole-france/) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20090919031610/http://w
 ww.litteratureaudio.com/livres-audio-gratuits-mp3/tag/anatole-france) 19 September 2009 at
the Wayback Machine (in French)
Anatole France (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12286) at Find a Grave

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