ANATOLE FRANCE (1844-1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist who was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. He was elected to the Académie française in 1896, and won the 1921 Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament."
The son of a bookseller, France began his literary career as a poet and a journalist, and became famous with the novel LE CRIME DE SYLVESTRE BONNARD (1881) about a philologist in love with his books and bewildered by everyday life. Several early works evoke the transition from paganism to Christianity, including BALTHAZAR (1889), a fanciful version of the story of one of the Magi, and THAÏS (1890), the story of the conversion of an Alexandrian courtesan during the Christian era.
A marked change in his work first appears in four volumes collected under the title L’HISTOIRE CONTEMPORAINE (1897-1901). The last volume, MONSIEUR BERGERET IN PARIS (1901), concerns the participation of the hero, who had formerly held himself aloof from political strife, in the Alfred Dreyfus affair. This work is the story of Anatole France himself, who was diverted from his role of an armchair philosopher and detached observer of life by his commitment to support the Jewish officer falsely convicted of espionage.
In his later years France became increasingly interested in social questions. PENGUIN ISLAND (1908) is a satirical history of France and human nature that depicts the transformation of penguins into humans, and concludes with a dystopian future. THE GODS WILL HAVE BLOOD (1912), about a true-believing follower of Robespierre and his contribution to the Reign of Terror of 1793-94, is a wake-up call against political and ideological fanaticism.
France has been faulted for the thinness of his plots and for his lack of a vital creative imagination. His works are, however, considered remarkable for their wide-ranging erudition, their wit and irony, their passion for social justice, and their classical clarity, qualities that mark France as an heir to the tradition of Denis Diderot and Voltaire.
The following books are in PDF or ePUB format as indicated:
== FICTION, PLAYS, AND POETRY ==
* Bee: The Princess of the Dwarfs (Open Road, 2014). Translated by Mrs John Lane. -- ePUB
* Complete Works (Delphi Classics, 2015). Various translators. -- ePUB
* Gods Are Athirst, The (Nobel Prize Library, 1971). Translated by Alec Brown. -- PDF
* Gods Will Have Blood, The (Penguin Classics, 2004). Translated by Frederick Davies. -- ePUB
* Penguin Island (Baen, 2013). Translated by A. W. Evans; Illustrated by Frank Papé. -- ePUB
* Red Lily, The (Barnes & Noble, 2011). Translated by Winifred Stephens. -- ePUB
* Seven Wives of Bluebeard & Other Marvellous Tales (Bodley Head, 1920). Translated by D. B. Stewart. -- ePUB
* Thaïs (Literary Guild, 1932). Introduction by Carl van Doren. -- PDF
== NON-FICTION ==
* Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech (Nobel Prize Library, 1971). -- PDF
* On Life and Letters (Bodley Head, 1914-1924). 4 vols. Translated by A. W. Evans (1st & 2nd Series), D. B. Stewart (3rd Series), and Bernard Miall (4th Series). -- PDF
* Opinions of Anatole France, The (Knopf, 1922). Recorded by Paul Gsell; translated by Ernest A. Boyd. -- PDF
