Penguin Island – Anatole France
Penguin Island – Anatole France – 1908
Posted by guillermo maynez on 26/3/2015, 12:24:40
I had never read Anatole France, but finally in a spell between my reading on WWI and its cultural entourage, I took this from my shelves and loved it. At the beginning I thought it would be an allegorical history of humanity, but gradually I realized that it was an increasingly less disguised history of France. Nevertheless, it contains acute and frequently very funny insights on human nature. As an allegory, it can not have profoundly developed characters, but each episode presents clear-cut portraits of human types. My favorite part was the long section on the Dreyfus affair. Has anyone of you read this?
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Posted by Steven on 26/3/2015, 22:28:38, in reply to “Penguin Island”
I read it some years ago. My reaction was similar to yours–I first thought it was a general satire on human history, but it became focused on the Dreyfus Affair. I thought it would have been better to be one or the other, and not both.
I’ve also read France’s Thaïs, which I enjoyed much more. It is a biting satire against religious dogma and in favor of humanism.
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