Anatole France

Anatole France was the pen name of François-Anatole Thibault, a French poet, journalist, and novelist born on 16 April 1844 and dying on 12 October 1924. He wrote several best-selling books. Known for his irony and skepticism, he was regarded during his lifetime as the quintessential French man of letters. France belonged to the Académie Française and received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel committee praised his work for its noble style, deep human sympathy, grace, and true Gallic temperament. He is also thought to have been the inspiration for Bergotte, the fictional literary hero of Marcel Proust’s narrator in *In Search of Lost Time*.

France grew up around books. His father ran a bookstore that focused on the French Revolution and attracted many writers and scholars. France himself was a bibliophile. He attended the private Catholic Collège Stanislas, then helped his father in the shop. Later, he worked as a cataloguer for Bacheline-Deflorenne and Lemerre. In 1876, he became a librarian for the French Senate.

His literary career began with poetry and journalism. In 1869, his poem “La Part de Madeleine” appeared in *Le Parnasse contemporain*. He served on the committee for the third *Parnasse contemporain* in 1875. As a journalist from 1867, he produced many articles and notices. He gained fame with the 1881 novel *Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard*. Its protagonist, a skeptical old scholar named Sylvester Bonnard, reflected France’s own character. The novel was admired for its elegant prose and earned a prize from the Académie Française. In *La Rôtisserie de la Reine Pédauque* (1893), he mocked belief in the occult, and *Les Opinions de Jérôme Coignard* (1893) captured the fin de siècle mood. He was elected to the Académie Française in 1896.

France was involved in the Dreyfus affair. He signed Émile Zola’s manifesto supporting Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer wrongly convicted of espionage. He wrote about the affair in his 1901 novel *Monsieur Bergeret*. His later works include *Penguin Island* (1908), which satirizes human nature by showing penguins turned into humans after being mistakenly baptized by the nearly blind Abbot Mael. The book is a satirical history of France from medieval times to his own era, with special focus on the Dreyfus affair, ending in a dystopian future. *The Gods Are Athirst* (1912) is set in Paris during the French Revolution and follows a devoted follower of Maximilien Robespierre who contributes to the Reign of Terror. It warns against political and ideological fanaticism and explores various philosophical views of the period. *The Revolt of the Angels* (1914) is often seen as France’s most profound and ironic novel. Loosely based on the Christian War in Heaven, it tells of Arcade, the guardian angel of Maurice d’Esparvieu. Bored because the bishop is sinless, Arcade reads theology books and becomes an atheist. He moves to Paris, falls in love, loses his virginity, and his wings fall off. He joins a revolution of fallen angels and meets the Devil, who realizes that overthrowing God would only make him like God. Arcade concludes that replacing God is pointless unless people attack and destroy “Ialdabaoth” within themselves—France’s secret name for God, meaning “the child who wanders.”

France won the Nobel Prize in 1921. He died on 12 October 1924 and was buried in the Neuilly-sur-Seine Old Communal Cemetery near Paris. On 31 May 1922, the Catholic Church placed all his works on its Index Librorum Prohibitorum. France considered this a “distinction.” The Index was abolished in 1966.

In 1877, France married Valérie Guérin de Sauville, granddaughter of miniaturist Jean-Urbain Guérin, who painted Louis XVI. Their daughter Suzanne was born in 1881 and died in 1918. France had turbulent relationships with women. In 1888, he began an affair with Madame Arman de Caillavet, who ran a famous literary salon during the Third Republic; it lasted until shortly before her death in 1910. After his divorce in 1893, he had many liaisons, including with American Laura Gagey, who committed suicide in 1911 after he left her. In 1920, he married his housekeeper Emma Laprévotte. France held socialist sympathies and openly supported the 1917 Russian Revolution. In 1920, he backed the newly formed French Communist Party. In his book *The Red Lily*, he 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.”

English writer George Orwell defended France, saying his work remained very readable and that attacks on him were partly political.

France’s poetry includes *Les Légions de Varus* (1867), *Poèmes dorés* (1873), and *Les Noces corinthiennes* (1876). His prose fiction includes *Jocaste et le chat maigre* (1879), *Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard* (1881), *Les Désirs de Jean Servien* (1882), *Abeille* (1883), and *Nos Enfants* (1886), the last illustrated by Louis-Ma.