Anatole France (French:[anatɔlfʁɑ̃s]; bornFrançois-Anatole Thibault[frɑ̃swaanatɔltibo]; 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 Frenchman of letters.[1] He was a member of theAcadémie Française, and won the1921 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 trueGallic temperament".[2]
The son of a bookseller, France, abibliophile,[4] spent most of his life around books. His father's bookstore specialized in books and papers on theFrench Revolution and was frequented by many writers and scholars. France studied at theCollège Stanislas, a private Catholic school, and after graduation he helped 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 theFrench Senate.[6]
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 thirdParnasse contemporain compilation. As a journalist, from 1867, he wrote many articles and notices. He became known with the novelLe 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]
InLa Rotisserie de la Reine Pedauque (1893) France ridiculed belief in theoccult, and inLes Opinions de Jérôme Coignard (1893), France captured the atmosphere of thefin de siècle. He was elected to the Académie Française in 1896.[9]
France took a part in theDreyfus affair. He signedÉmile Zola's manifesto supportingAlfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer who had been falsely convicted ofespionage.[10] France wrote about the affair in his 1901 novelMonsieur Bergeret.
France's later works includePenguin 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 satiricalhistory of France, starting in medieval times, going on to the author's own time with special attention to the Dreyfus affair and concluding with adystopian future.The Gods Are Athirst (Les dieux ont soif, 1912) is a novel, set in Paris during theFrench Revolution, about a true-believing follower ofMaximilien Robespierre and his contribution to the bloody events of theReign 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 Révolte des Anges, 1914) is often considered France's most profound and ironic novel. Loosely based on the Christian understanding of theWar 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 destroyIaldabaoth." "Ialdabaoth", according to France, is God's secret name and means "the child who wanders".
On 31 May 1922, France's entire works were put on theIndex Librorum Prohibitorum ("List of Prohibited Books") of theCatholic Church.[11] He regarded this as a "distinction".[12] This Index was abolished in 1966.
In 1877, France married Valérie Guérin de Sauville, a granddaughter ofJean-Urbain Guérin, aminiaturist who paintedLouis 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 withMadame Arman de Caillavet, who conducted a celebrated literary salon of theThird Republic. The affair lasted until shortly before her death in 1910.[13]
After his divorce, in 1893, France had many liaisons, notably with an American, Laura Gagey, who committed suicide in 1911 after he abandoned her.[14]
In 1920, France married for the second time, his housekeeper Emma Laprévotte.[15]
France hadsocialist sympathies and was an outspoken supporter of the 1917Russian Revolution. In 1920, he gave his support to the newly foundedFrench Communist Party.[16] In his bookThe 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."[17]
Anatole France on a postage stamp of Armenia, 2015
The English writerGeorge Orwell defended France and declared that his work remained very readable, and that "it is unquestionable that he was attacked partly from political motives".[18]
