Anatole France

{{Infobox writer

| name = {{lang|fr|Anatole France|italic=unset}}

| image = Anatole France young years.jpg

| birth_name = {{lang|fr|François-Anatole Thibault|italic=unset}}

| birth_date = {{birth date|1844|4|16|df=y}}

| birth_place = Paris, France

| death_date = {{death date and age|1924|10|12|1844|4|16|df=y}}

| death_place = Tours, France

| occupation = Novelist

| awards = {{awd|Nobel Prize in Literature|1921}}

| signature = A france sign.gif

}}

{{lang|fr|Anatole France|italic=unset}} ({{IPA|fr|anatɔl fʁɑ̃s|lang}}; born {{lang|fr|François-Anatole Thibault|italic=unset}} {{IPA|fr|frɑ̃swa anatɔl tibo|}}; 16 April 1844 – 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."[https://www.nytimes.com/1924/10/13/archives/anatole-france-great-author-dies-veteran-philosopher-jacques.html Anatole France, Great Author, Dies]", The New York Times, October 13, 1924, p.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".{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1921/france/facts/|title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 1921 |website=www.nobelprize.org |access-date=28 September 2023}}

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.{{cite web |title=Marcel Proust: A Life, by Edmund White |url=http://tenpagesormore.blogspot.com/2010/07/3-marcel-proust-life-by-edmund-white-pp.html |date=12 July 2010 |access-date=28 September 2023}}

Early years

The son of a bookseller, France, a bibliophile,{{cite web |url=http://benonsensical.com/blog/tag/famous-bibliophiles |title=Anatole France |work=benonsensical |date=24 July 2010 |access-date=30 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113174349/http://benonsensical.com/blog/tag/famous-bibliophiles |archive-date=13 November 2012 |url-status=dead}} spent most of his life around books. His father's bookstore specialized in books and papers on the French Revolution and was frequented by many writers and scholars. France studied at the Collège Stanislas, a private Catholic school, and after graduation he helped his father by working in his bookstore.{{cite book |author=Tylden-Wright, David |title=Anatole France |location=New York |publisher=Walker and Company |date=1967 |page=37}} 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.{{cite book |author=Tylden-Wright, David |title=Anatole France |location=New York |publisher=Walker and Company |date=1967 |page=55}}

Literary career

France began his literary career as a poet and a journalist. In 1869, Le Parnasse contemporain published one of his poems, "{{lang|fr|La Part de Madeleine|italic=unset}}". 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 {{lang|fr|Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard}} (1881).{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/french-literature-biographies/anatole-france |title=France, Anatole |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia.Com, Cengage |year=2018 |access-date=28 September 2023}} 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.{{cite web |url=https://www.librarything.com/bookaward/Prix+Montyon+de+l%27Acad%C3%A9mie+fran%C3%A7aise |title=Book awards: Prix Montyon de l'Académie française: Book awards by cover. |work=LibraryThing |access-date=11 June 2022}} File:Anatole France house, Villa Said.jpg|italic=unset}}, 1894–1924]]

In {{lang|fr|La Rotisserie de la Reine Pedauque}} (1893) France ridiculed belief in the occult, and in {{lang|fr|Les Opinions de Jérôme Coignard}} (1893), France captured the atmosphere of the {{lang|fr|fin de siècle}}. He was elected to the Académie Française in 1896.{{cite book |author=Virtanen, Reino |title=Anatole France |location=New York |publisher=Twayne Publishers, Inc. |date=1968 |page=88}}

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.{{cite book |author=Tekijä, jonka |url=http://authorscalendar.info/afrance.htm |title=Anatole France (1844-1924)- pseudonym for Jacques Anatole Francois Thibault |location= |publisher=Authors’ Calendar. books and writers |date= |page=|access-date=11 June 2022}} France wrote about the affair in his 1901 novel Monsieur Bergeret.

France's later works include Penguin Island ({{Lang|fr|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 ({{lang|fr|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 ({{Lang|fr|La Révolte des Anges}}, 1914) is often considered France's most profound and ironic novel. Loosely based on the Christian understanding of the War in Heaven, it tells the story of Arcade, 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".

File:Anatole France 1921.jpg

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921. He died on 13 October 1924 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/indexlibrorum.html |title=Modern History Sourcebook: {{lang|la|Index librorum prohibitorum|nocat=y}}, 1557–1966 (Index of Prohibited Books) |first=Paul |last=Halsall |date=May 1998 |publisher=Internet History Sourcebooks Project (Fordham University) }} He regarded this as a "distinction".{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_current-opinion_1922-08_73_2/page/295/mode/1up?q=Anatole |title=ANATOLE FRANCE REGARDS IT AS A "DISTINCTION" TO HAVE HIS BOOKS BANNED BY THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH |work=Current Opinion |date=September 1922 |page=295 |access-date=30 September 2023}} 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.{{cite book |author=Édouard Leduc |title=Anatole France avant l'oubli |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lRpAHOLmpF4C&pg=PA222|year=2004|publisher=Éditions Publibook |isbn=978-2-7483-0397-1 |pages=219, 222–}} 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.

After his divorce, in 1893, France had many liaisons, notably with an American, Laura Gagey, who committed suicide in 1911 after he abandoned her.{{cite book |last1=Leduc|first1=Edouard |title=Anatole France avant l'oubli |publisher=Editions Publibook |isbn=9782748303971 |page=223 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lRpAHOLmpF4C&pg=PA223 |language=fr |year=2006}}

In 1920, France married for the second time, his housekeeper Emma Laprévotte.{{cite book |author=Lahy-Hollebecque, M. |year=1924 |title={{lang|fr|Anatole France et la femme}} 252 pp |publisher=Baudinière}}

France had socialist sympathies and was an outspoken supporter of the 1917 Russian Revolution. In 1920, he gave his support to the newly founded French Communist Party.{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Anatole+France |title=Anatole France |encyclopedia=The Free Dictionary |access-date=28 September 2023}} 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."{{cite journal |last1=Go |first1=Johann J. |title=Structure, choice, and responsibility |journal=Ethics & Behavior |date=2020 |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=230–246 |doi=10.1080/10508422.2019.1620610|s2cid=197698306 }}

Reputation

File:AM011-15.jpg

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".{{Cite book |title = What Is Fiction For?: Literary Humanism Restored |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ec1uBgAAQBAJ |publisher = Indiana University Press |date = 29 December 2014b|isbn = 9780253014122|language = en |first = Bernard |last = Harrison |access-date=28 September 2023}}

Works

=Poetry=

File:Anatole France, Vanity Fair, 1909-08-11.jpg for Vanity Fair, 1909]]

File:Anatole France - Nos enfants.pdf (1900)]]

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

=Prose fiction=

{{Lang|fr|Jocaste et le chat maigre}} (Jocasta and the Famished Cat) (1879)
{{Lang|fr|Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard}} (The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard) (1881)
{{Lang|fr|Les Désirs de Jean Servien}} (The Aspirations of Jean Servien) (1882)
{{Lang|fr|Abeille}} (Honey-Bee) (1883)
{{Lang|fr|Balthasar}} (1889)
{{Lang|fr|Thaïs}} (1890)
{{Lang|fr|L'Étui de nacre}} (Mother of Pearl) (1892)
{{Lang|fr|La Rôtisserie de la reine Pédauque}} (At the Sign of the Reine Pédauque) (1892)
{{Lang|fr|Nos Enfants}} (Our Children: Scenes from the Country and the Town) (1886) illustrated by Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel
{{Lang|fr|Les Opinions de Jérôme Coignard}} (The Opinions of Jerome Coignard) (1893)
{{Lang|fr|Le Lys rouge}} (The Red Lily) (1894)
{{Lang|fr|Le Puits de Sainte Claire}} (The Well of Saint Clare) (1895)
{{Lang|fr|L'Histoire contemporaine}} (A Chronicle of Our Own Times)
1: {{Lang|fr|L'Orme du mail}} (The Elm-Tree on the Mall) (1897)
2: {{Lang|fr|Le Mannequin d'osier}} (The Wicker-Work Woman) (1897)
3: {{Lang|fr|L'Anneau d'améthyste}} (The Amethyst Ring) (1899)
4: {{Lang|fr|Monsieur Bergeret à Paris}} (Monsieur Bergeret in Paris) (1901)
Clio (1900)
{{Lang|fr|Histoire comique}} (A Mummer's Tale) (1903)
{{Lang|fr|Sur la pierre blanche}} (The White Stone) (1905)
{{Lang|fr|L'Affaire Crainquebille}} (1901)
{{Lang|fr|L'Île des Pingouins}} (Penguin Island) (1908)
{{Lang|fr|Les Contes de Jacques Tournebroche}} (The Merrie Tales of Jacques Tournebroche) (1908)
{{Lang|fr|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)
{{Lang|fr|Les dieux ont soif}} (The Gods Are Athirst) (1912)
{{Lang|fr|La Révolte des anges}} (The Revolt of the Angels) (1914)
{{Lang|fr|Marguerite}} (1920) illustrated by Fernand Siméon

=Memoirs=

{{Lang|fr|Le Livre de mon ami}} (My Friend's Book) (1885)
{{Lang|fr|Pierre Nozière}} (1899)
{{Lang|fr|Le Petit Pierre}} (Little Pierre) (1918)
{{Lang|fr|La Vie en fleur}} (The Bloom of Life) (1922)

=Plays=

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

=Historical biography=

{{Lang|fr|Vie de Jeanne d'Arc}} (The Life of Joan of Arc) (1908)

=Literary criticism=

Alfred de Vigny (1869)
{{Lang|fr|Le Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte}} (1888)
{{Lang|fr|Le Génie Latin}} (The Latin Genius) (1909)

=Social criticism=

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

References

External links

{{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/anatole-france}}
{{Gutenberg author |id=755 |name=Anatole France}}
[http://noblib.internet-box.ch/NLEW.php?authorid=21 List of Works]
{{Internet Archive author |sname=Anatole France}}
{{Librivox author |id=890}}
{{OL author}}
{{Nobelprize}}
[https://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/books/nobel-France.pdf "Anatole France, Nobel Prize Winner"] by Herbert S. Gorman, The New York Times, 20 November 1921
[http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/f/france_a.htm Correspondence with architect Jean-Paul Oury] at Syracuse University
{{lang|fr|[http://tsar.mcgill.ca/bibliographie/Anatole_France Université McGill: le roman selon les romanciers]}}
[http://www.litteratureaudio.com/livres-audio-gratuits-mp3/tag/anatole-france/ Anatole France, his work in audio version] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090919031610/http://www.litteratureaudio.com/livres-audio-gratuits-mp3/tag/anatole-france |date=19 September 2009 }} 15px {{in lang|fr}}