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FRANCE, ANATOLE (1844– )
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See also:FRANCE, ANATOLE (1844– ) , See also:French critic, essayist and novelist (whose real name was Jacques Anatole Thibault), was See also:born in See also:Paris on the 16th of See also:April 1844. His See also:father was a See also:book-seller, one of the last of the booksellers, if we are to believe the Goncourts, into whose See also:establishment men came, not merely to See also:order and buy, but to See also:dip, and turn over pages and discuss. As a See also:child he used to listen to the nightly talks on See also:literary subjects which took See also:place in his father's See also:shop. Nurtured in an See also:atmosphere so essentially bookish, he turned naturally to literature. In 1868 his first See also:work appeared, a study of See also:Alfred de See also:Vigny, followed in 1873 by a See also:volume of See also:verse, See also:Les Poemes dotes, dedicated to Leconte de See also:Lisle, and, as such a See also:dedication suggests, an outcome of the " Parnassian " See also:movement; and yet another volume of verse appeared in 1876, Les Noces corinthiennes. But the poems in these volumes, though unmistakably the work of a See also:man of See also:great literary skill and cultured See also:taste, are scarcely the poems of a man with whom verse is the highest See also:form of expression.
He was to find his richest vein in See also:prose. He himself, avowing his preference for a See also:simple, or seemingly simple, See also:style as compared with the See also:artistic style, vaunted by the Goncourts—a style compounded of neologisms and " rare " epithets, and startling forms of expression—observes: " A simple style is like See also: He is a doubter in See also:religion, See also:metaphysics, morals, politics, See also:aesthetics, science—a most genial and kindly doubter, and not at all without doubts even as to his own negative conclusions. Sometimes his doubts are expressed in his own person—as in the Jardin d'epicure (1894) from which the above extracts are taken, or Le Livre de mon See also:anti (1885), which may be accepted, perhaps, as partly autobiographical; sometimes, as in La Rotisserie de la reine Pedauque (1893) and Les Opinions de M. See also:Jerome Coignard (1893), or L'See also:Orme du See also:mail (1897), Le Mannequin d'See also:osier (1897), L'Anneau d'amethyste (1899), and M. Bergeret a Paris (1901), he entrusts the expression of his opinions, dramatically, to some fictitious character—the See also:abbe Coignard, for instance, projecting, as it were, from the 18th See also:century some very effective criticisms on the popular See also:political theories of contemporary France—or the M. Bergeret of the four last-named novels, which were published with the collective See also:title of Histoire contemporaine. This See also:series deals with some See also:modern problems, and particularly, in L'Anneau d'amethysle and M. Bergeret a Paris, with the humours and follies of the anti-Dreyfusards. All this makes a piquant See also:combination. Neither should reference be omitted to his See also:Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard (1881), crowned by the See also:Institute, nor to See also:works more distinctly of See also:fancy, such as Balthasar (1889), the See also:story of one of the Magi or See also:Thais (1890), the story of an actress and courtesan of See also:Alexandria, whom a See also:hermit converts, but with the loss of his own soul. His ironic See also:comedy, Crainquebille (See also:Renaissance See also:theatre, 1903), was founded on his novel (1902) of the same See also:year. His more See also:recent work includes his anti-clerical See also:Vie de Jeanne &Arc (19o8); his pungent See also:satire the Ile See also:des penguins (1908); and a volume of stories, Les See also:Sept Femmes dc la. Bark-Pleue (19o9). Lightly as he bears his erudition, it is very real and extensive, and is notably shown in his utilization of modern archaeological and See also:historical See also:research in his fiction (as in the stories in Sur une See also:pierre See also:blanche). As a critic—see the Vie litteraire (1888–1892), reprinted mainly from Le Temps—he is graceful and appreciative. See also:Academic in the best sense, he found a place in the French See also:Academy, taking the seat vacated by See also:Lesseps, and was received into that See also:body on the 24th of See also:December 1896. In the affaire See also:Dreyfus he sided with M. See also:Zola.
For studies of M. Anatole France's See also:talent see See also:Maurice Barres, Anatole France (1885); Jules See also:Lemaitre, Les Contemporains (2nd series, 1886); and G. See also:Brandes, Anatole France (1908). In 1908 See also:Frederic See also:Chapman began an edition of The works of Anatole France in an See also:English See also:translation (See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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