Showing results by author "Anatole France" in All Categories

An angel called Arcade leaves heaven for earth, where, using his invisibility, he steals books from a library with the purpose of studying. He ultimately joins several other fallen angels with a plan now to overthrow God, in their eyes an incapable and ill-informed and thus impossible creator...The great author's knowledge of history and religious texts is brilliantly conveyed, pairing extremely well with his cynical philosophy and the virtuosity in his descriptive prose.

French literature may be said to begin with the ninth century "Song of Roland," and it has since then churned out masterpiece after masterpiece in every century right up to the present. Beginning with Balzac and Dumas in the early part of the nineteenth century and proceeding to Sartre and Camus at the midpoint of the twentieth, the stories in this collection showcase the talents of some of the greatest French masters of the short story.

Anatole France (1844-1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist who wrote several best sellers. The Revolt of the Angels is a mischievous take on the theology of modern society; it chronicles the thoughts of Arcade, a lowly guardian angel, as he discovers the ugly truths of his divine master in the library of his human charge As Maurice, the young man abandoned by Arcade, struggles to get his guardian back, one gets a view of a wide variety of the author’s artistic personalities, most of whom are fallen angels.

Penguin Island is Anatole France’s most searching and satirical novel. A humorous critique of customs and laws, rituals and rites, its subject is human nature, but its characters are penguins in the mythical land of Penguinia. The story of the strutting penguins and their virtues and vices is not merely a burlesque allegory of French history, but a satire of the history of mankind.

Love has many forms, many needs. Some fall into the dark, into the shadows. Forbidden love has connotations of desire, of possession but also of matters far more unsavoury. It’s a delicate facet of love that our classic authors explain with careful words and superbly crafted narratives.

Baltasar y otros relatos reúne seis relatos y una novela corta del Premio Nobel Anatole France. Una muestra de la maestría de su dominio del lenguaje y de la construcción de situaciones y personajes que quedan durante mucho tiempo en la memoria del lector. Baltasar es la historia de amor y desengaño que lleva al protagonista a convertirse en uno de los Reyes Magos y que años más tarde inspirará la novela Gaspar, Melchor y Baltasar de Michel Fournier.

Nous sommes en 1793, Évariste Gamelin, un jeune peintre parisien, sensible à l'injustice et généreux, devient juré au tribunal révolutionnaire, et va franchir peu à peu, sous le prétexte de protéger la révolution de divers complots, la frontière qui sépare le juste de l'ignoble, le bon de l'exécrable, le légitime du totalitaire.Son amour pour Élodie, la fille de son marchand d'estampes, accentue l'aspect paradoxal de la montée d'une cruauté inspirée par des idées politiques a priori généreuses.

In the fourth century, the ascetic Paphnuce leaves his secluded desert hermitage and ventures into the bustling streets of Alexandria, driven by a profound mission to persuade the enchanting and free-spirited actress, Thais, to embrace Christianity. Under the guise of a humble seeker, he manages to captivate her attention and speaks passionately about the eternal truths. To his astonishment, Thais experiences a genuine transformation and retreats to a convent, seeking a life of devotion. Yet, Paphnuce finds himself haunted by her beauty and charm, struggling against his own desires through ...

An enchanting collection of some of the greatest short stories ever written by notable French authors.

In The Mass of Shadows, Anatole France weaves a solemn and haunting tale of love, memory, and the fragile boundary between life and death. Through the voice of a sacristan recalling his father’s stories, we enter a world where the dead return not in terror, but in reverence—souls bound by affection, regret, and unfinished devotion. Once a year, they are granted a single hour to reunite with those they loved, gathering silently in their parish church to attend a Mass said not for the living, but for memory itself.

This work vividly examines the lives of artists, nobles, commoners, and members of the Revolutionary Tribunal during the Reign of Terror in Paris. It is through our protagonist that we see how increasing power corrupts ever increasingly. And casting her dark shadow over all is Madame Guillotine.

First published in 1908, and widely regraded as his masterpiece, Penguin Island is Anatole France's most searching and satirical novel. A humorous critique of customs and laws, rituals and rites, its subject is human nature, but its characters are penguins in the mythical land of Penguinia. The story of the strutting penguins and their virtues and vices is not merely a burlesque allegory of French history, it is a satire of the history of mankind. With gentle yet biting irony, France challenges the Spencerian belief in the ultimate perfectibility of man, though his irony reveals his sympathy for man's weaknesses and his need for social institutions.

„Der Christ des Ozeans" berichtet von einem hölzernen Kruzifix inklusive Jesusportrait, das an die Küste eines französischen Dorfes angeschwemmt wird – sendet Gott ein aktuelles Zeichen? Die Kirche weiß Rat und nutzt die Gunst der Stunde, um ein kostspieliges, nagelneues, mit Diamanten verziertes Kreuzsymbol auf dem Rücken der Bevölkerung zu finanzieren. In „Ein Traum" beschreibt der Ich-Erzähler ein groteskes Szenario, dessen Deutung am Ende einem vertrauten Zuhörer überlassen wird.

Die Schriften der französischen Prosa-Ikone Anatole France wurden zu Beginn des letzten Jahrhunderts vom Vatikan auf den Index verbotener Bücher gesetzt. Ob bei den offiziellen europäischen Gottes-Profis inzwischen ein Umdenken stattgefunden hat, ist zu bezweifeln. Jedenfalls zeugen die Erzählungen des Anatole France von einem großartigen Verständnis der praktischen Welt und einem sehr gutem Verständnis der menschlichen Natur – wahrscheinlich deswegen für den Vatikan unverständlich.

Sylvestre Bonnard is a mild-mannered, kind-hearted book collector and antiquarian, a little tyrannized by his housekeeper maybe, but nonetheless respected and eminent in his field of research into the abbeys, abbots and monks of medieval France. He has spent his life with his books, and knows little of the ways of the world. Resigned to reaching old age and retirement without being able to complete his life's work, he suddenly comes across the one thing that would not only complete it, but that would crown it with success. He heads off on an adventure to get his hands on this treasure and ...

Our fear of the Devil, whatever his temptations and rewards, is amplified by the thought of eternal damnation in his hell house service. In this volume our authors are all from Europe and see the Devil in ways that we recognise and yet are culturally distinct to the European mainland.

Anatole France creo una de las grandes novelas, que sobre el fondo de los anos posteriores a la Revolucion Francesa y el desarrollo del Terror, muestra un punto de vista diferente sobre ese hecho historico. El protagonista de la obra, el pintor Evaristo Gamelin, revolucionario ferviente, se ven envuelto en los torbellinos de los hechos y acaba sacrificando en vano su vida.

Anatole France reinventa la oscura fábula de un noble con un secreto sangriento. El castillo de Barba Azul esconde un misterio que ninguna de sus esposas ha vivido para contar. Con cada nueva esposa, resurge la esperanza de un amor verdadero y la ominosa sombra de la curiosidad. Pero, ¿puede el amor vencer al miedo? ¿Puede la verdad oculta ser más deslumbrante que la leyenda más negra? En esta retorcida y cautivadora versión, France desentraña el corazón humano, confrontando nuestros deseos más profundos y nuestros temores más oscuros.

This is a new translation of a popular French classic. Jocasta is a short novel that tells the story of a young woman whose lethargy under paternal pressure causes her to make a mistake, one that leads on inevitably to intrigue, murder and tragedy. It's a gripping story of star-crossed lovers, sinister and mysterious plots, complicity and guilt.

In this series we explore the many facets of love through literary talents that span both time and country. Love is good. It’s positive, a source of joy, nourishment and all over goodness. But sometimes other more malevolent forces come to play. They infect that love, they see their form as better. Instinctively we would shy away but sometimes its pull is too powerful, almost attractive. We are drawn closer into the shadows.