Anatole France, French Author
Novelist, Poet, Essayist, a Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature
Brief biography of French writer Anatole France, best known for prose elegance, and ironical and sympathetic portrayal of characters.
Anatole France (pseudonym of Jacques Anatole Francois Thibaut), was one of the greatest writers of France at the turn of the 20th century. A French novelist, poet and essayist, he was a Laureate in literature, awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921. His popular books include: Penguin Island, The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard, and The Revolt of the Angels.
Early Life
Born in Paris on April 16, 1844, Anatole France was the son of a bookseller. He loved books and read from an early age. He took his pseudonym from his father's shop, the Librairie (Library) de France. In his 20s and 30s, he wrote verses and articles for newspapers and magazines on literary subjects, and worked as a librarian. In his 40s he wrote influential essays on books and writers for the newspaper Le Temps.
Literary Career
France began his literary career as a publisher's reader, writer and critic. He published his first volume of stories, Jocasta and the Thin Cat in 1879. His first novel, Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard (The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard), was published when he was 37. Like his other works, it looks back to the 18th century as a golden age.
According to Larousse Dictionary of Writers, (1994), France married in 1877 after being appointed Keeper at the Senate Library, a position he lost because of a literary quarrel with Leconte de Lisle. Under the literary patronage of Madame de Caillavet, whose love affair with him brought about his divorce, he poured out a number of lively novels and critical studies such as the Parnassian Le Livre de mon ami (My Friend's Book) and a picture of childhood happiness. My Friend's Book strongly contrasts to the later satirical and sceptical works such as Les Opinions de Jerome Coignard.
Another remarkable collection of short stories by Anatole France was Balthasar. His vast classical knowledge found expression in Thaïs (1890). As a humanist, he attacked the shortcomings of contemporary society and the Church, and argued for social reforms. The fourth volume of A Contemporary Tale deals with the Dreyfus affair, the case that stirred him into politics as an opponent of church and state. Like novelist Émile Zola, Anatole France, along with other writers that time, supported the Dreyfus Affair, the case about Captain Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer wrongly convicted of treason.
Later he wrote on wider themes. Penguin Island is a satirical description of the way mankind has evolved, and The Gods Are Thirsty is a fable about terror set during the most horrifying years of the French Revolution. The Revolt of the Angels is a satire on theology and Christianity.
Final Years
Anatole France died in Tours, Indre-et-Loire on October 12, 1924. He was a major writer in the late 19th and early 20th century's French literature.
Books by Anatole France:
- The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1872)
- My Friend's Book (1885)
- Thaïs (1890)
- A Contemporary Tale (4 volumes) (1897-1901)
- Penguin Island (1908)
- The Gods Are Thirsty (1912)
- The Revolt of the Angels (1914)
Link
Sources:
Biographical Dictionary, ed. by Una McGovern, Chambers (2002)
Larousse Dictionary of Writers, ed. by Rosemary Goring (1994)
