A novel by Anatole France. Biographies, stories, facts, photos

Frans Anatole (Jacques Anatole Francois Thibaut) (1844 - 1924)

French critic, novelist and poet. Born in Paris in the family of a bookseller. He began his literary activity slowly: he was 35 years old when the first collection of short stories was published. He dedicated his autobiographical novels The Book of My Friend and Little Pierre to his childhood years.

The first collection "Golden Poems" and the poetic drama "The Corinthian Wedding" testified to him as a promising poet. The beginning of France's fame as an outstanding prose writer of his generation was laid by the novel "The Crime of Sylvester Bonnard".

In 1891, Tais appeared, followed by Queen Goose Feet's Tavern and The Judgments of M. Jerome Coignard, which provided a brilliant satirical depiction of eighteenth-century French society. In The Red Lily, Frans' first novel with a modern subject, the story of passionate love in Florence is described; The Garden of Epicurus contains examples of his philosophical discourses on happiness. After being elected to the French Academy, France began publishing the Modern History cycle of four novels - Under the Roadside Elm, The Willow Mannequin, The Amethyst Ring and Monsieur Bergeret in Paris.

The writer with sly wit depicts both Parisian and provincial society. In the short story "The Case of Krenkebil", later reworked into the play "Krenkebil", a judicial parody of justice is exposed. A satirical allegory in the spirit of Swift's "Penguin Island" recreates the history of the formation of the French nation.

In Joan of Arc, Frans tried to separate fact from legend in the life of a national saint. The novel "The Gods Thirst" is dedicated to the French Revolution. The book "On the Glorious Path" is filled with a patriotic spirit, but already in 1916 France condemned the war. In four volumes of the Literary Life, he showed himself to be a shrewd and subtle critic. Frans supported the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. In the early 1920s. he was among those who sympathized with the newly formed French Communist Party.

For many years, France was the main attraction in the salon of his close friend Madame Armand de Caillave, and his Parisian house ("Villa Seyid") turned into a place of pilgrimage for young writers - both French and foreign. In 1921 he was awarded the Nobel Prize literature prize.

The subtle wit inherent in Frans is reminiscent of the irony of Voltaire, with whom he has much in common. In his philosophical views, he developed and popularized the ideas of E. Renan.

The first collection Golden Poems (Les Pomes dors, 1873) and the verse drama The Corinthian Wedding (Les Noces corinthiennes, 1876) testified to him as a promising poet. The beginning of France's fame as an outstanding prose writer of his generation was laid by the novel The Crime of Sylvester Bonnard (Le Crime de Silvestre Bonnard, 1881).

Tais appeared in 1891, followed by Queen's Tavern Goose Feet (La Rtisserie de la reine Pdauque, 1893) and Jerome Coignard's Judgments (Les Opinions de M.Jrme Coignard, 1893), which gave a brilliant satirical image of the French 18th century. In The Red Lily (Le Lys rouge, 1894), France's first novel on a modern plot, describes the story of passionate love in Florence; Epicurus' Garden (Le Jardin d "picure, 1894) contains examples of his philosophical discourse on happiness, which consists in achieving sensual and intellectual joys.

After being elected to the French Academy (1896), France began publishing the Modern History cycle (Histoire contemporaine, 1897–1901) of four novels - Under the Roadside Elm (L "Orme du mail, 1897), Willow Mannequin (Le Mannequin d" osier, 1897) , Amethyst ring (L "Anneau d" amthyste, 1899) and Mr. Bergeret in Paris (M. Bergeret Paris, 1901). The writer depicts both Parisian and provincial society with sly wit, but at the same time sharply critical. Modern history mentions current events, in particular the Dreyfus affair.

In the short story The Case of Crainquebille (L "Affaire Crainquebille, 1901), later revised into the play Crainquebille (Crainquebille, 1903), a judicial parody of justice is exposed. A satirical allegory in the spirit of Swift Island of Penguins (L" le des pingouins, 1908) recreates the history of the formation of the French nation. In Jeanne d "Arc (Jeanne d" Arc, 1908), Frans tried to separate facts from legends in the biography of a national saint, although he himself was skeptical of any historical research, considering judgments about the past always more or less subjective. In the novel The Gods Thirst (Les Dieux ont soif, 1912), dedicated to the French Revolution, his disbelief in the effectiveness of revolutionary violence was expressed; written on a modern plot, the Rise of the Angels (La Rvolte des anges, 1914) ridiculed Christianity. The book On the Glorious Path (Sur la Voie glorieuse, 1915) is filled with a patriotic spirit, but already in 1916 France condemned the war. In four volumes of the Literary Life (La Vie littraire, 1888–1894), he proved himself to be a shrewd and subtle critic, but extreme subjectivity forced him to refrain from any kind of assessment, since in his eyes the significance of a work was determined not so much by its merits as by personal cravings of criticism. He joined E. Zola in defending Dreyfus, and from the collection of essays To Better Times (Vers les temps meilleurs, 1906) his sincere interest in socialism is clear. France supported the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. In the early 1920s, he was among those who sympathized with the newly formed French Communist Party.

For many years, France was the main attraction in the salon of his close friend Madame Armand de Caillave, and his Parisian house (Villa Seyid) became a place of pilgrimage for young writers, both French and foreign. In 1921 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The subtle wit inherent in Frans is reminiscent of the irony of Voltaire, with whom he has much in common. In his philosophical views, he developed and popularized the ideas of E. Renan.

French writer and literary critic. Member of the French Academy (1896). Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1921), the money of which he donated to the benefit of the starving Russia.
Anatole France hardly graduated from the Jesuit College, where he studied extremely reluctantly, and, having failed several times in the final exams, passed them only at the age of 20.
Since 1866, Anatole France was forced to earn a living himself, and began his career as a bibliographer. Gradually, he gets acquainted with the literary life of that time, and becomes one of the prominent participants in the Parnassian school.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, Frans briefly served in the army, and after demobilization he continued to write and perform various editorial work.
In 1875 he had his first real opportunity to prove himself as a journalist, when the Parisian newspaper Le Temps commissioned him for a series of critical articles on contemporary writers. The very next year, he becomes the leading literary critic of this newspaper and leads his own column called " literary life».
In 1876, he was also appointed deputy director of the library of the French Senate and held this post for the next fourteen years, which gave him the opportunity and means to engage in literature. In 1913 he visited Russia.
In 1922, his writings were included in the Catholic Index of Forbidden Books.
He was a member of the French Geographical Society. In 1898 Frans took an active part in the Dreyfus affair. Under the influence of Marcel Proust, France was the first to sign Emile Zola's famous manifesto letter "I accuse". From that time on, Frans became a prominent figure in the reformist, and later the socialist camp, took part in the organization of public universities, lectured to workers, and participated in rallies organized by leftist forces. France becomes a close friend of the socialist leader Jean Jaurès and a literary master of the French Socialist Party.

Frans is a philosopher and poet. His worldview is reduced to refined epicureanism. He is the sharpest of the French critics of modern reality, without any sentimentality revealing the weaknesses and moral falls of human nature, imperfection and ugliness. public life, customs, relations between people; but in his criticism he introduces a special reconciliation, philosophical contemplation and serenity, a warming feeling of love for weak humanity. He does not judge or moralize, but only penetrates into the meaning of negative phenomena. This combination of irony with love for people, with an artistic understanding of beauty in all manifestations of life, is a characteristic feature of Frans' works. The humor of Frans lies in the fact that his hero applies the same method to the study of the most heterogeneous phenomena. The same historical criterion by which he judges events in ancient Egypt serves him to judge the Dreyfus case and its impact on society; the same analytical method with which he proceeds to abstract scientific questions helps him explain the act of his wife who cheated on him and, having understood it, calmly leave, without judging, but not forgiving either.

en.wikipedia.org

Biography

Anatole France's father was the owner of a bookstore that specialized in literature on the history of the French Revolution. Anatole France hardly graduated from the Jesuit College, where he studied extremely reluctantly, and, having failed several times in the final exams, passed them only at the age of 20.

In 1866, Anatole France was forced to earn a living himself, and began his career as a bibliographer. Gradually, he gets acquainted with the literary life of that time, and becomes one of the prominent participants in the Parnassian school.

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, Frans briefly served in the army, and after demobilization he continued to write and perform various editorial work.

In 1875 he had his first real opportunity to prove himself as a journalist, when the Parisian newspaper Le Temps commissioned him for a series of critical articles on contemporary writers. The very next year, he becomes the leading literary critic of this newspaper and leads his own column called "Literary Life".

In 1876, he was also appointed deputy director of the library of the French Senate and held this post for the next fourteen years, which gave him the opportunity and means to engage in literature.

In 1896, France was elected a member of the French Academy.

In 1921 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

In 1922, his writings were included in the Catholic Index of Forbidden Books.

Social activity France

He was a member of the French Geographical Society.

In 1898 Frans took an active part in the Dreyfus affair. Under the influence of Marcel Proust, France was the first to sign Emile Zola's famous manifesto letter "I accuse".

From that time on, Frans became a prominent figure in the reformist, and later the socialist camp, took part in the organization of public universities, lectured to workers, and participated in rallies organized by leftist forces. France becomes a close friend of the socialist leader Jean Jaurès and a literary master of the French Socialist Party.

Creativity Frans

Early work

The novel that brought him fame, Le Crime de Silvestre Bonnard, published in 1881, is a satire that favors frivolity and kindness over harsh virtue.

In subsequent novels and stories by Frans, with great erudition and subtle psychological instinct, the spirit of different historical eras is recreated. "The Tavern of Queen Goose Feet" ("La Rotisserie de la Reine Pedauque", 1893) is a satirical story in the taste of the 18th century, with the original central figure of Abbé Jerome Coignard, he is pious, but leads a sinful life and justifies his "falls" by the fact that they strengthen in him the spirit of humility. The same abbot France displays in "The judgments of Mr. Jerome Coignard" ("Les Opinions de Jerome Coignard", 1893).

In a number of stories, in particular, in the collection "Mother-of-Pearl Casket" ("L'Etui de nacre", 1892), France reveals a vivid fantasy; his favorite topic is the juxtaposition of pagan and Christian worldviews in stories from the first centuries of Christianity or the early Renaissance. Best Samples in this genus - "Saint Satyr" ("Saint Satyr"). In this he had a certain influence on Dmitry Merezhkovsky. The story "Thais" ("Thais", 1890) - the story of the famous ancient courtesan who became a saint - is written in the same spirit of a mixture of Epicureanism and Christian mercy.

In the novel "Red Lily" ("Lys Rouge", 1894), against the backdrop of exquisitely artistic descriptions of Florence and primitive painting, a purely Parisian adultery drama in the spirit of Bourges is presented (with the exception of beautiful descriptions of Florence and paintings).

Social romance period

Then Frans began a series of peculiar novels with sharp political content under the general title: "Modern History" ("Histoire Contemporaine"). This is a historical chronicle with a philosophical coverage of events. As a modern historian, Frans reveals the insight and impartiality of a scientific prospector, along with the subtle irony of a skeptic who knows the value of human feelings and undertakings.

The fictional plot is intertwined in these novels with real social events, depicting election campaigning, the intrigues of the provincial bureaucracy, incidents of the Dreyfus process, and street demonstrations. Along with this, the scientific research and abstract theories of the armchair scientist, the troubles in his home life, the betrayal of his wife, the psychology of a puzzled and somewhat short-sighted thinker in life affairs are described.

In the center of events that alternate in the novels of this series, there is one and the same person - the learned historian Bergeret, who embodies the philosophical ideal of the author: a condescending skeptical attitude towards reality, ironic equanimity in judgments about the actions of those around him.

satirical novels

The next work of the writer, the two-volume historical work "The Life of Joan of Arc" ("Vie de Jeanne d'Arc", 1908), written under the influence of the historian Ernest Renan, was poorly received by the public. The clerics objected to the demystification of Jeanne, and the book seemed to historians to be insufficiently faithful to the original sources.

On the other hand, a parody of the French story "Penguin Island" ("L'Ile de pingouins"), also published in 1908, was received with great enthusiasm. In Penguin Island, the myopic Abbot Mael mistook the penguins for humans and christened them, causing a lot of trouble in heaven and on earth. In the future, in his indescribable satirical manner, France describes the emergence of private property and the state, the emergence of the first royal dynasty, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Most of the book is devoted to contemporary events of Frans: the attempted coup by J. Boulanger, the clerical reaction, the Dreyfus affair, the mores of the Waldeck-Rousseau cabinet. At the end, a gloomy forecast of the future is given: the power of financial monopolies and nuclear terrorism that destroys civilization.

Next big piece of art writer, the novel "The Gods are thirsty" ("Les Dieux ont soif", 1912), is dedicated to the French Revolution.

His novel "The Rise of the Angels" ("La Revolte des Anges", 1914) is a social satire written with elements of game mysticism. Not the all-good God reigns in Heaven, but the evil and imperfect Demiurge, and Satan is forced to raise an uprising against him, which is a kind of mirror reflection of the social revolutionary movement on Earth.

After this book, Frans fully turns to autobiographical topics and writes essays on childhood and adolescence, which later became part of the novels "Little Pierre" ("Le Petit Pierre", 1918) and "Life in Bloom" ("La Vie en fleur", 1922 ).

France and opera

The works of Frans "Thais" and "The Juggler of Our Lady" served as a source for the libretto of the composer Jules Massenet's operas.

Characteristics of the worldview of Frans from the Brockhaus Encyclopedia

Frans is a philosopher and poet. His worldview is reduced to refined epicureanism. He is the sharpest of the French critics of modern reality, without any sentimentality revealing the weaknesses and moral falls of human nature, the imperfection and ugliness of social life, morals, relations between people; but in his criticism he introduces a special reconciliation, philosophical contemplation and serenity, a warming feeling of love for weak humanity. He does not judge or moralize, but only penetrates into the meaning of negative phenomena. This combination of irony with love for people, with an artistic understanding of beauty in all manifestations of life, is a characteristic feature of Frans' works. The humor of Frans lies in the fact that his hero applies the same method to the study of the most heterogeneous phenomena. The same historical criterion by which he judges events in ancient Egypt serves him to judge the Dreyfus case and its impact on society; the same analytical method with which he proceeds to abstract scientific questions helps him explain the act of his wife who cheated on him and, having understood it, calmly leave, without judging, but not forgiving either.
This article was written using material from encyclopedic dictionary Brockhaus and Efron (1890-1907).

Compositions

Modern History (L'Histoire contemporaine)

* Under the city elms (L'Orme du mail, 1897).
* Willow mannequin (Le Mannequin d'osier, 1897).
* Amethyst ring (L'Anneau d'amethyste, 1899).
* Mister Bergeret in Paris (Monsieur Bergeret a Paris, 1901).

Autobiographical cycle

* The book of my friend (Le Livre de mon ami, 1885).
* Pierre Noziere (1899).
* Little Pierre (Le Petit Pierre, 1918).
* Life in bloom (La Vie en fleur, 1922).

Novels

* Jocaste (Jocaste, 1879).
* "Skinny cat" (Le Chat maigre, 1879).
* Crime of Sylvester Bonnard (Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard, 1881).
* Passion of Jean Servien (Les Desirs de Jean Servien, 1882).
* Count Abel (Abeille, conte, 1883).
* Thais (Thais, 1890).
* Tavern Queen Goose Feet (La Rotisserie de la reine Pedauque, 1892).
* Judgments of M. Jerome Coignard (Les Opinions de Jerome Coignard, 1893).
* Red lily (Le Lys rouge, 1894).
* Garden of Epicurus (Le Jardin d'Epicure, 1895).
* Theatrical history(Histoires comiques, 1903).
* On a white stone (Sur la pierre blanche, 1905).
* Penguin Island (L'Ile des Pingouins, 1908).
* The gods thirst (Les dieux ont soif, 1912).
* Revolt of the Angels (La Revolte des anges, 1914).

Novels collections

* Balthasar (Balthasar, 1889).
* Mother-of-pearl casket (L'Etui de nacre, 1892).
* Well of St. Clare (Le Puits de Sainte Claire, 1895).
* Clio (Clio, 1900).
* Procurator of Judea (Le Procurateur de Judee, 1902).
* Crainquebille, Putois, Riquet, and many other useful stories (L'Affaire Crainquebille, 1901).
* Stories by Jacques Tournebroche (Les Contes de Jacques Tournebroche, 1908).
* The Seven Wives of Bluebeard (Les Sept Femmes de Barbe bleue et autres contes merveilleux, 1909).

Dramaturgy

* What the hell is not kidding (Au petit bonheur, un acte, 1898).
* Crainquebille (piece, 1903).
* Willow mannequin (Le Mannequin d'osier, comedie, 1908).
* A comedy about a man who married a mute (La Comedie de celui qui epousa une femme muette, deux actes, 1908).

Essay

* Life of Joan of Arc (Vie de Jeanne d'Arc, 1908).
* Literary life (Critique litteraire).
* Latin genius (Le Genie latin, 1913).

Poetry

* Golden Poems (Poemes dores, 1873).
* Corinthian wedding (Les Noces corinthiennes, 1876).

Publication of works in Russian translation

* Collected works in 8 volumes. - M., 1957-1960.
* Collected works in 4 volumes. - M., 1983-1984.

Mikhail Kuzmin Anatole France

Speaking pompously, one could say about the death of Anatole France: "The last Frenchman died." This would be true if the concept of a Frenchman did not change, like all concepts in general, sometimes even leaving its periphery.

France is a classic and lofty image of the French genius, although it harmoniously combines properties that mutually destroy each other, as it were. Maybe there is a law that the quality, brought to the limit, turns into the opposite.

Being connected by the deepest and tenacious roots with the French nationality, France refined and expanded this national element to a worldwide internationality.

Being an anti-religious thinker, in any case, anti-church, Frans only does what he draws inspiration and thoughts from church antiquity and church dogmas.

While mocking the various methods of historiography, he resorts to them in his works of a historical nature.

A principled violator of traditions, Frans sacredly and inviolably observes them.

The enemy, as a skeptic, of all kinds of fanaticism and enthusiasm, he brings a certain fervor into the very enmity. Although, of course, ardor is the least suitable definition for Frans' work. Warmth, humanity, liberalism, irony, compassion - these are the qualities that are remembered when the name of Frans is pronounced. Words are not cold, not hot - warm, supporting human life, but not pushing for action. Unthinkable in disasters. In the time of the Apocalypse, at the current moment of it, Frans would have been "spewed out of his mouth" as an angel of the Laodicean church, who was precisely neither hot nor cold. Such people are not suitable for the Apocalypse, just as all kinds of Apocalypses cannot be to their liking. This is not the kind of atmosphere where they feel like a fish in water. The so-called epochs of decline before the explosions are a good time for skepticism; the weathered beams will support the dilapidated building, the wind is probably already blowing, but not strong enough, you can say yes and no, or neither yes nor no, and objectively come to no conclusion. Not only war requires warlike people, but every definite and strong action. Frans was a deeply civilian and literary man. Orthodoxy rejects the dogma of purgatory (neither yes nor no), but the icons of the Last Judgment sometimes depict souls in the form of a naked person trembling in the air, sins do not allow him to heaven, and good deeds save him from hell. This is how Frans appears to me. Only he does not tremble, but has arranged the hanging garden of Epicurus and argues intelligently and liberally about all sorts of things, until the trumpet roar of the last judgment drowns out human words and requires an animal or divine cry. Of course, Frans will not let a cry. He doesn't want to, and he can't. But as long as intellectually human qualities are sufficient - brilliance, humanity and breadth of thought, understanding, gentleness, responsiveness, charm and brilliance of the greatest human talent, harmony and balance - France has no equal. Looking for a definite answer from him is an enterprise doomed to failure in advance. An anecdote about a wise man comes to mind, from whom a student asked for advice: whether to marry him or not to marry. “Do as you like, you will still regret it.” Frans would have answered everything: “Do whatever you like: you will still make a mistake.” Errors and difficulties he always saw vigilantly and subtly, but he would have found it difficult to point out where they were not. He wouldn't take responsibility for anything. He willingly helps to destroy, but he is careful not to lay a brick in a new building. If he does, he will always doubt whether he is building a newly destroyed building again. There are no buildings that would not be subject to destruction, in his opinion. It's not worth the trouble for a while, And it's impossible to love forever.

In the meantime, watch with a smile how the houses of cards of passions, desires collapse, philosophical teachings, reigns, empires and solar systems. Approximately all are of equal importance from a certain point of view. Of course, this is very hopeless. But if you think logically, then, first of all, everyone needs to hang themselves, and then it will be seen. France, on the other hand, thinks mostly logically, terribly logically, deadly logically. And yet, I don't want to get rid of him. Not because he offers the rope with the meekest smile, and even lathered this rope, but because in addition to the human mind, which “understands everything” with sad logic, there is something in him that makes it all alive. A skeptic, an atheist, a destroyer, etc. - all this is in him, but partly all this is a position, a mask that hides the most valuable thing that Frans never discovered, which he was chastely ashamed of, which, perhaps, he would have renounced in favor of the old skeptical coat. Maybe this is love, I do not know and do not want to find out secrets. But it is she who holds the whole building of Frans, despite his apologetic smiles. Sometimes, as in "Rise of the Angels", he came very close to her, the word is ready to break from his lips, but again he makes a diversion to the side, again he is ashamed, again - neither yes nor no. A hint of a key is given by the "Saint Satyr", whom the author almost identifies with himself.

The usual disguises of the author: Abbé Coignard, Mr. Bergeret, little Pierre. In the person of the child, Frans opposes conventional common sense with even more common sense, natural and naive. Naivety, of course, is a polemical device, similar to the polemical devices of Leo Tolstoy, who appears, when he needs it, completely stupid. The next stage of polemical naivety is Riquet's dog, the same mask of Frans. All masks, like almost all novels, are reasons for reasoning. Frans' range of interests is very wide, and he does not miss the opportunity to express his opinion, to quote in his own way illuminated, to tell a forgotten and caustic anecdote. In this respect, the four volumes of Modern History can serve as a most curious example of a new form of fiction. Of course, these are not novels and not one novel in four books. These are feuilletons, an excursion into history, theology, ethnography, pictures of manners. The slightly outlined double plot of the struggle for the episcopal see and the family history of Mr. Bergeret is drowned in digressions and topical diatribes. Some pages are so valuable to Frans that he repeats them almost without any changes in several books. This persistence does not always correspond to the specificity of these places in the work of Frans.

Frans' encyclopedism is his great erudition. Great reader. The absence of a system in his reading gives his knowledge freshness and breadth, but at the same time, of course, makes him related to the compilers of antiquity, like Aulus Gellius. This system, being brought to the point of popurrizatory absurdity, certainly leads to a tear-off calendar with information for each day. To read Frans, you will need a subject index and a list of authors mentioned. The Opinions of the Abbé Coignard and The Garden of Epicurus, completely devoid of plot, do not differ so much from his novels as might be expected. The new form is "On the White Stone", a work of course poetic, fiction, but by no means a novel in the generally accepted sense of the word.

A quotation torn from a book lives a separate life, sometimes more significant than that left in its proper place. It gives room for imagination and reflection. As an epigraph, lines taken from works of very dubious significance impress and excite. Frans is well aware of this strange psychological phenomenon, and he, in turn, brilliantly uses it, all the more so since the method of reticence with outward clarity is made by the author as a principle.

Frans sees clearly at close range, like a physically nearsighted person. Hence the lack of large lines. Fantasy, generally uncharacteristic of the Latin races, is also weakly manifested in Frans. The use of ready-made mythological or legendary figures, such as angels, nymphs and satyrs, should not, of course, be mistaken for a fantastic element. Slight deviations towards pathology and telepathy cannot count. Frans is a genius, highly natural. Only by the power of talent does he make his ordinariness extraordinary, in contrast to geniuses of a different composition, who impose their unnaturalness on the world as naturalness.

Frans has few utopian dreams, and they all look like a fairy tale about a white bull. So in White Stone and Penguin Island, the picture of the socialist system ends with anarchist uprisings, the rise of colored races, destruction, savagery, and again the slow growth of the same culture. The law of connection between opposites brought to the limit is especially clear in The Revolt of the Angels, where immediately after the victory of Lucifer over Jehovah, the celestial becomes an oppressor, and the overthrown despot becomes an oppressed rebel, so that the external rebellion has to be transferred inside oneself and each one in himself overthrows his own Jehovah which, of course, is both harder and easier. Transferring the center of gravity of any liberation to the realm of thinking and feeling, and not social and state conditions, partly comes into contact with Tolstoy's teaching, partly repeats the "know thyself" of the ancient Greeks, which can either serve as an invitation to a flat and material study of anatomy and biology or lead to mystically irresponsible wilds. And yet this formula, similar to the ambiguous dictum of the oracle, was, perhaps, the only affirmative proposition of Frans.

The deliberate destruction of large generalizing lines and perspectives in the depiction of historical epochs and events leads to the relegation of heroism and to the glorification (at least in potency) of everyday modernity. The insignificance of the causes, the grandeur of the consequences and vice versa. In passing, let us recall Tolstoy's War and Peace (Napoleon, Kutuzov) and Pushkin's notes on Count Nulin. What if Lucretia just slid on Tarquinius' face? For Frans, many Tarquinias are nothing more than Counts Nulins, and the story takes on an unusually caustic, familiar and modern character. The little things of our lives suddenly have projections into world history.

A similar attitude to history can already be found in Niebuhr and, of course, in Taine, whose dry and corrosive spirit was very close to Frans. Taine can generally be counted among the teachers of Frans.

Voltaire, Taine and Renan.

Salon, sworn scoffing, analytical, corrosive destruction of idealistic generalizations and seminary, clerical revolt against the church, mainly as a well-known institution. Voltaire, Taine and Renan influenced both the style and the language of France.

A clear, well-aimed, venomous phrase, the audacity of which is always tempered by sociability; dry and clear definitions, deliberately and deadly materialistic and, finally, sweet floridity, honey and oil, when the French language turns into an organ, harp and flute, church secular sermons and funeral speeches, Bossuet, Massillon and Bourdalou - sweet-tongued Renan.

Voltaire's novels are ancestors in the most direct line of many of the stories of Frans ("Shirts") and even the epic "Penguin Island".

Not only "The Gods Thirst" is directly adjacent to the Then's "Origin modern France”, but to his time, Frans applies partly the same method. "Thomas Grandorge", Taine's only fictional experience, had an undeniable influence on some of the works of Frans.

To Renan, France owes, in addition to the sweetest harmonic language in lyric-philosophical places, the painting of landscapes and the local atmosphere (compare the beginning of Joan of Arc with Renan's Palestinian landscapes).

Objects of attacks and ridicule by Frans in the field of the humanities: the method of historiography, the method of ethnography and the interpretation of folklore and legends. The brilliance and play of his mind and imagination in these cases are unparalleled. But, as he himself repeatedly repeated, old prejudices are replaced only by new prejudices. So, in place of the history, ethnography and legends he ridiculed, he puts his own, though charming, the easiest, but still fairy tales and fantasies.

Of the public institutions hated by Francis (although hatred is too hot a feeling for him), are the court, the church and the state. He analyzes them ready-made, as they exist, therefore, he is an anti-clerical and a socialist. But my opinion is that he does not recognize them, in essence, in general, as any self-affirming phenomenon. A non-militant anarchist is perhaps Frans' most accurate definition. He sees elements of anarchism and communism in the infantile period of Christianity, and from the personality of Francis of Assisi ("The Human Tragedy") he makes a figure that is very indicative of his worldview.

Not hot, not cold, warm. This is how Frans carried himself to the end, surprising the world, how a person of such significance and height can be a smiling and reasoning witness. This is where the mystery of Frans lies, so unsuited for the role of a man with a mystery. Not so much a mystery as a figure of default. Unspoken words. Hints are given, very cautious, but given. And yet this word keeps Frans at an unattainable height. Perhaps it will turn out to be quite simple and will deceive many conflicting opinions about the great writer.

Frans Anatole

France (France) Anatole (pseudonym; real name - Anatole Francois Thibault; Thibault) (16.4.1844, Paris, - 12.10.1924, Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire), French writer. Member of the French Academy since 1896. Son of a second-hand book dealer. He began his literary career as a journalist and poet. Having become close with the Parnassus group, he published the book A. de Vigny (1868), the collection Golden Poems (1873, Russian translation 1957) and the dramatic poem Corinthian Wedding (1876, Russian translation 1957). In 1879 he wrote the stories "Jocasta" and "Skinny Cat", reflecting his passion for positivism and the natural sciences. Fame came after the publication of the novel "The Crime of Sylvester Bonnard" (1881, Russian translation 1899). In the 70-80s. wrote articles, prefaces to editions of the classics of French literature, which then compiled the collection "Latin Genius" (1913). Influenced by the philosophy of J. E. Renan F. in the 80s. contrasts the vulgarity and squalor of bourgeois reality with the enjoyment of spiritual values ​​​​and sensual joys (the novel "Tais", 1890, Russian translation 1891). The most complete expression of F.'s philosophical outlook was found in the collection of aphorisms The Garden of Epicurus (1894, full Russian translation, 1958). The rejection of bourgeois reality manifests itself in F. in the form of skeptical irony. The spokesman for this irony is the Abbé Coignard, the hero of the books The Tavern of Queen Goose Feet (1892, Russian translation under the title Salamander, 1907) and The Judgments of Monsieur Jérôme Coignard (1893, Russian translation 1905). Confronting his heroes with the life of the royal 18th century, F. ironically not only over the orders of the past, but also over the contemporary social reality of the Third Republic. In the short stories (collections Belshazzar, 1889; Mother-of-Pearl Casket, 1892; Saint Clare's Well, 1895; Clio, 1900), F. is a fascinating conversationalist, a brilliant stylist and stylist. Condemning fanaticism, hypocrisy, the writer affirms the greatness of the natural laws of life, the human right to joy and love. F.'s humanistic and democratic views opposed decadent literature, irrationalism, and mysticism.

In the late 90s. in connection with the intensification of the reaction, one of the manifestations of which was the "Dreyfus affair" (see the Dreyfus case), F. writes a sharp and bold satire - the tetralogy "Modern History", consisting of the novels "Under the roadside elm" (1897, Russian translation . 1905), "Willow Mannequin" (1897), "Amethyst Ring" (1899, Russian translation 1910) and "Mr. Bergeret in Paris" (1901, Russian translation 1907). In this satirical review, F. reproduced the political life of the late 19th century with documentary accuracy. The image of the humanist, philologist Bergeret, dear to the author, runs through the entire tetralogy. social theme characteristic of most of the stories in the collection Crainquebil, Putois, Riquet, and Many Other Useful Stories (1904). The fate of the greengrocer Krenquebil, the hero story of the same name, who became a victim of judicial arbitrariness, a ruthless state machine, is raised to a great social generalization.

At the beginning of the 20th century F. became close to the socialists, with J. Zhores; in the newspaper L'Humanite for 1904, he published the socio-philosophical novel On the White Stone (separate edition, 1905), the main idea of ​​which is the affirmation of socialism as the natural and only positive ideal of the future. F. the publicist consistently opposed the clerical-nationalist reaction (the book The Church and the Republic, 1904). The highest rise of F.'s journalistic activity is associated with the Revolution of 1905-07 in Russia; he is the chairman of the Society of Friends of the Russian People and Peoples annexed to Russia (February 1905), founded by him. His journalism 1898-1906 was partly included in the collections "Social convictions" (1902), "To better times" (1906). The defeat of the revolution was a heavy blow for F. F.’s works also expressed painful contradictions, doubts, and criticism of bourgeois society that became even more aggravated and deepened after 1905: the novels Penguin Island (1908, Russian translation, 1908), The Rise of the Angels ( 1914, Russian translation 1918), short stories in the collection "The Seven Wives of Bluebeard" (1909). AT historical novel"The Gods Are Thirsty" (1912, Russian translation, 1917) F., showing the greatness of the people, the selflessness of the Jacobins, at the same time affirms the pessimistic idea of ​​the doom of the revolution. At the beginning of World War I (1914–18), F. fell for some time under the influence of chauvinist propaganda, but already in 1916 he understood the imperialist nature of the war.

A new rise in F.'s journalistic and social activities was associated with the revolutionary events of 1917 in Russia, which restored the writer's faith in the revolution and socialism. F. became one of the first friends and defenders of the young Soviet Republic, protested against intervention and blockade. Together with A. Barbus, F. is the author of manifestos and declarations of the Klarte association. In 1920, he fully sided with the newly founded French Communist Party. In recent years, F. completed a cycle of memories of childhood and adolescence - "Little Pierre" (1919) and "Life in Bloom" (1922) - previously written "My Friend's Book" (1885) and "Pierre Nozière" (1899); worked on the philosophical "Dialogues under the Rose" (1917-24, published 1925). Nobel Prize (1921)

F. went through a difficult and difficult path from a refined connoisseur of antiquity, a skeptic and contemplative to a satirist writer, a citizen who recognized the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat, the world of socialism. The value of F.'s books is in the bold, merciless exposure of the vices of bourgeois society, in the affirmation of the high ideals of humanism, in original and subtle artistic skill. M. Gorky called F.'s name among the great realists; he was highly valued by A. V. Lunacharsky.

Cit.: CEuvres completes illustrees, v. 1-25, ., 1925-1935; Vers les temps meilleurs, Trente ans de vie sociale, v. 1-3, ., 1949-1957; in Russian per. - Complete collection of works, ed. A. V. Lunacharsky, vol. 1-14; vol. 16-20, M. - L., (1928) -31; Sobr. soch., v. 1-8, M., 1957-1960.

Lit .: History of French literature, vol. 3, M., 1959; Lunacharsky A. V., Writer of irony and hope, in his book: Articles on literature, M., 1957; Dynnik V., Anatole France. Creativity, M. - L., 1934; Fried J., Anatole France and his time, M., 1975; Corday M., A. France d "apres ses confidences et ses souvenirs, ., (1927); Seilliere E., A. France, critique de son temps, ., 1934; Suffel J., A. France, ., 1946 ; his own, A. France par luimeme, (., 1963); Cachin M., Humaniste - socialiste - communiste, "Les Lettres francaises", 1949, 6 Oct., No. 280; "Europe", 1954, No. 108 ( the number is dedicated to A. France); Ubersfeld A., A. France: De l "humanisme bourgeois a l" humanisme socialiste, "Cahiers du communisme", 1954, No. 11-12; Vandegans A., A. France. Les annees de formation ., 1954; Levaililant J., Les aventures du scepticisme. Essai sur l`evolution intellectuelle d`A. France, (., 1965); Lion J., Bibliographic des ouvrages consacres a A. France, ., 1935.

I. A. Lileeva.

Island of penguins. annotation

Anatole France is a classic of French literature, a master of the philosophical novel. Penguin Island depicts in a grotesque way the history of human society from its inception to modern times. As the plot of the novel develops, satire on modern writer French bourgeois society. The wit of the narrator, the brightness of social characteristics give the book an unfading freshness.

The celebrated satirist Anatole France was a proven master of paradoxes. Expressed in brief maxims, honed to a diamond sharpness, embodied in the form of whole scenes, situations, plots, often defining the idea of ​​a work, paradoxes permeate French creativity, giving it brilliance and originality. But these are by no means the paradoxes of an inveterate wit. In their whimsical form, France portrayed the contradictions of bourgeois existence. Frans' paradoxes are not tinsel, but sparks, cut out in a sharp collision of humanistic ideas, dear to the mind and heart of the writer, with the social untruth of his time.

"Penguin Island" - the most intricate creation of Anatole France. A bold play of fantasy, an unusual turn of habitual images, audacious joking of generally accepted judgments, all facets of comedy - from buffoonery to the subtlest mockery, all means of exposure - from a poster pointing finger to a sly squint of the eyes, an unexpected change of styles, the interpenetration of skillful historical restorations and the topic of the day - all this striking, sparkling variety is at the same time a single artistic whole. The idea of ​​the book is one, the author's intonation that dominates it is one. "Penguin Island" is a genuine brainchild of sparkling French irony, albeit sharply different from other older brainchildren, such as, for example, "The Crime of Sylvester Bonard" or even "Modern History", but retaining an undoubted "family" resemblance to them.

In his long life, Anatole France (1844-1924) wrote poetry and poems, short stories, fairy tales, plays, “childhood memories” (due to the unreliability of these memories, one has to resort to quotation marks), political and literary critical articles; he wrote the story of Joan of Arc and much more, but the main place in all his work belongs to the philosophical novel. From the philosophical novel "The Crime of Sylvester Bonard, Academician" (1881), Frans' literary fame began, philosophical novels ("Thais", books about the abbot Coignare, "The Red Lily", "Modern History", "The Gods Are Thirsty", "The Rise of the Angels") marked the main stages of his ideological and artistic quest.

Perhaps even more rightly can be called a philosophical narrative and "Penguin Island" (1908), which reproduces in a grotesquely caricatured form the history of human civilization. Historical facts and characteristic signs of different eras Frans, this tireless collector of old prints and rare manuscripts, a fine connoisseur of the past, a skillful recreator of distant, bygone times, scatters in Penguin Island with a generous hand. All this, however, by no means turns Penguin Island into a historical novel. History itself, artistically reinterpreted by the great French satirist, serves him only as a springboard for satirical attacks on modern capitalist civilization.

In a humorous preface to the novel, France speaks of a certain Jaco the Philosopher, the author of a comic story about the deeds of mankind, where he included many facts from the history of his people - does the definition given to the work of Jaco the Philosopher fit the "Penguin Island" written by Jacques -Anatole Thibault (real name of Frans)? Doesn't one feel here the intention of Frans to present Jaco the Philosopher as his artistic "second self"? (By the way, the nickname "Philosopher" in this case is very significant.) The echo of the various depicted eras - from ancient to modern - not only in the subject (property as a result of violence, colonialism, wars, religion, etc.), but also in the plot (the emergence of the cult of St. Orbrosa in primitive times and the restoration of this cult by politicians and saints of modern times) serves Francis as one of the true artistic means for the philosophical generalization of modern, including the most topical, material of French reality. The depiction of the very origins of civilization, which reveals the history of the penguins, which in the future is more and more specifically connected with French history, gives it a more generalized character, spreads the generalization far beyond the borders of France, makes it applicable to the entire exploiting society as a whole, - not without reason Jaco the Philosopher , despite numerous references to facts from the life of his homeland, calls his work a story about the deeds of all mankind, and not just any one people. Such a connection of a broad socio-philosophical generalization with specific episodes of French life protects the artistic world of Penguin Island from the sin of abstraction, which is so tempting for the creators of philosophical novels. In addition, such a connection makes this philosophical novel amusing, sometimes hilariously funny, no matter how strange such a characterization sounds in relation to such a serious literary genre.

The organic fusion of the funny and the profound is not new to Frans' art. Back in Modern History, he not only portrayed the monarchist plot against the Third Republic as a ridiculous farce, boldly mixing erotic adventures in it secular ladies with the machinations of political conspirators - he also drew from this farce profound socio-philosophical conclusions about the very nature of the bourgeois republic. The legitimacy of the combination of the funny and the serious was already proclaimed by Frans in his first novel through the mouth of the most learned Sylvester Bonard, who was convinced that the desire for knowledge is alive and well only in joyful minds, that only by having fun can one truly learn. In a paradoxical form (also funny in its own way!) it expresses not only a fruitful pedagogical idea, but a primordially humanistic view of the life-affirming nature of knowledge.

The commonwealth of life-affirming laughter, even buffoonery, and the cognitive power of socio-philosophical generalizations is clearly embodied in the humanistic epic of the 16th century - "Gargantua and Pantagruel" by the great Rabelais. Philosophical novels Frans absorbed the traditions of various masters of this genre - Voltaire and Montesquieu, Rabelais and Swift. But if in the books of 1893 - "The Tavern of Queen Goose Paws" and "The Judgments of Mr. Jerome Coypiard" - Frans most of all feels the spirit of the Enlighteners, especially Voltaire - both in composition, and in an adventurous plot, and in caustic irony, - then in " Penguin Island” is dominated by the tradition of Rabelais, sometimes combined with the tradition of Swift. Voltaire's caustic chuckle is here and there drowned out by Rabelaisian rolling laughter, and sometimes by Swift's bilious laughter.

Rabelais was for France the most beloved writer of the French Renaissance, and among all his literary favorites in general, he gave way, perhaps, only to Racine. Rabelais, one might say, was the companion of the whole creative life France. France reveled not only in the monstrous play of his fantasy in Gargantua and Pantagruel, but also in stories about the stormy life of Rabelais himself. Even before Penguin Island, Frans often paid tribute to the Rabelaisian grotesque in his work. The buffoonish fantasy of Rabelais, his inventive mockery of the most seemingly inviolable concepts, unshakable institutions, his magnificent mischief in creating images and situations - all this was reflected in France's "Penguin Island", and not in individual episodes and some features of style, but in the main idea, in the whole artistic nature of the book.

The main themes of Penguin Island are already defined in the preface, where Frans gives a vicious satire on official historical pseudoscience, clenched into a fist. In an ironically respectful tone, parodying the scientific judgments and pseudo-academic language of his interlocutors, the narrator, who allegedly turned to them for advice, conveys all the stupidity, all the absurdities, political obscurantism and obscurantism of their advice and recommendations to the penguin historian - to promote pious feelings, devotion to the rich in his work. , the humility of the poor, who supposedly form the foundations of any society, with special reverence to interpret the origin of property, the aristocracy, the gendarmerie, not to reject the intervention of the supernatural in earthly affairs, etc. Throughout all subsequent pages of Penguin Island, Frans ruthlessly reviews the entire set similar principles. He decisively cracks down on officially propagated illusions about the emergence of property, public order, religious legends, wars, moral ideas and so on. and so on. All this is done in such a way that the well-aimed and sharp mockery of the satirist, with a calculated rebound, falls into the very foundations of contemporary capitalist society - no, not only modern, but any capitalist society in general: after all, the novel also speaks of the future. In the depiction of Frans, these foundations turn out to be monstrously absurd, their absurdity is emphasized by the beloved artistic medium the author is grotesque.

The intro to the vast catalog of absurdities, into which the history of mankind turns under the pen of Anatole France, is a story about the very emergence of the penguin society, about the beginning of their civilized life. The mistake of the blind-sighted Mael, a zealot of the Christian faith, who accidentally baptized penguins, mistaking them from a distance for people - this is what grandiose absurdity the penguins owe their introduction to humanity. In the face of penguins, really funny in their external resemblance to a person, the writer has at his disposal a whole troupe of actors for the farce he has started - the image of centuries-old human civilization.

In such a farce, Anatole France, who has long rejected the property system, penetrates its very essence, throws off all the hypocritical veils fabricated by the ideologists of the bourgeoisie from property, and shows it as the prey of predators, as the result of the most brutal violence. Watching how an enraged penguin, already turned into a man by the will of God, shreds the nose of his fellow tribesman with his teeth, the meek old man Mael, in the simplicity of his soul, cannot understand what is the meaning of such cruel fights; his companion comes to the aid of the bewildered old man, explaining that in this wild struggle the foundations of property are laid, and hence the foundations of future statehood.

In such scenes, the former French paradoxes, being embodied in real images, still double their crushing power.

The French grotesque manifests itself just as clearly in relation to religion and the church. The anti-Christian theme runs through all of Frans' work. However, nowhere until now his atheistic and anti-church convictions, which are an organic part of this atheist's "creed", have not been expressed in such burning sarcasm as in "Penguin Island".

Regarding the ludicrous mistake of the blind-sighted preacher, Frans staged a scientific discussion in heaven, in which the fathers of the church, teachers of the Christian faith, holy ascetics and the Lord God himself take part. In the temperamental argumentation of the disputants, who in the heat of the dispute interfere with the highly solemn language of the Bible with the official eloquence of judicial chicaners, and even with the rough vocabulary of fair barkers, Frans pushes together various dogmas of Christianity and the establishment of the Catholic Church, demonstrating their complete contradiction and absurdity. Even more space for anti-religious pathos is given in the story of Orbrosa, the highly revered penguin saint, whose cult arose from a combination of arrogant selfish deceit and dense ignorance. The writer not only ridicules here the cult of St. Genevieve, given out by the Catholic Church as the patroness of Paris, but refers, so to speak, to the origins of all such legends.

Religion as an instrument of political reaction, the Catholic Church as an ally of the racists and monarchist adventurers of the Third Republic, as a fabricator of miracles that dull the consciousness of the people, has already been subjected to sarcastic consideration in Modern History. By the way, the theme of Orbrosa has already been outlined there: the depraved girl Honorna amuses the tender listeners with ridiculous stories about her “visions” in order to lure out handouts that she shares with the spoiled boy Isidore on their next love date. However, the theme of a debauchee and a deceiver who enjoys religious veneration receives a much more ramified and generalized interpretation in Penguin Island: the cult of St. Orbrosa is here being artificially revived by the secular rabble of modern times in order to serve the cause of reaction. Frans will give the religious theme the most acute topicality.

The same synthesis of historical generalization and the political topic of the day is also observed in the interpretation military theme. Here, the ideological and artistic closeness of Anatole France to Francois Rabelais is especially noticeable: every now and then, behind the shoulders of the penguin warriors of old and new times, one can see King Picrochole with his advisers and inspirers, marked with a shameful stigma in Gargantua and Pantagruel. In Penguin Island, the theme of war, which has long disturbed Frans, sharply escalates. First of all, this affected the image of Napoleon. Napoleon was, so to speak, almost an obsessive image for France - as if France had an unquenchable personal enmity towards him. In Penguin Island, the satirist pursues Napoleon's military glory all the way to the statue of the emperor atop a proud column, all the way to allegorical figures. Arc de Triomphe. He, as always, gloatingly enjoys the demonstration of his spiritual limitations. Moreover, Napoleon loses all presentability, acquires the buffoonish appearance of a character of some fair performance. Even his sonorous name is replaced in "Penguin Island" by the foolish pseudonym Trinco.

By this kind of grotesque downgrading of the image, France debunks not only Napoleon, but also the militaristic idea of ​​​​military glory associated with him. The writer fulfills his satirical task by telling about the journey of a certain Malay ruler to the country of penguins, which gives him the opportunity to collide old, traditionally consecrated judgments about military exploits with a fresh perception of a traveler who is not bound by European conventions and - in the manner of an Indian from Voltaire's story "Innocent" or Persian from Montesquieu's "Persian Letters" - with his naive bewilderment helping the author to reveal the very essence of the matter. Resorting to such estrangement as a tried and tested method of discrediting, Frans makes the reader look at military glory through the eyes of Maharaja Jambi, and instead of the heroic guards, spectacular battle clutches, victorious gestures of the commander, he sees a picture of miserable post-war everyday life, inevitable physical and moral degeneration, with which the people are paying for the aggressive policy of their rulers.

In Penguin Island, Frans convincingly showed the inseparable inner connection between imperialist politics and modern capitalism. When the scientist Obnubil travels to New Atlantis (in which one can easily recognize the North American United States), he naively believes that in this country of developed and flourishing industry, in any case, there is no place for the shameful and senseless cult of war, with which he could not reconcile at home in Penguinia. But, alas, all his beautiful-hearted illusions were immediately dispelled as soon as he attended a meeting of the New Atlantis Parliament and witnessed how statesmen vote for declaring war on the Emerald Republic, seeking world hegemony in the trade in hams and sausages. Obnubil's journey to New Atlantis enables the author to further generalize the satirical review of modernity.

The fact that Anatole France, like Jaco the Philosopher, borrows a lot “from the history of his own country” is explained not only by the author’s desire to write about life he knew well, but also by the cynical exposure of the typical vices of capitalism, which was characteristic of the Third Republic. Boulanger's monarchical adventure, the Dreyfus affair, the corruption of rulers and officials, the betrayal of pseudo-socialists, the conspiracies of royalist thugs indulged by the police - this general pandemonium of the reactionary forces just begged for the poisonous satirist France to capture it in his book. And love for France, for his people, gave his sarcasms a special bitterness.

The leaders of the Third Republic are playing a vile game in Penguin Island. Fictional names and names do not hide the connection of France's characters and situations with real ones taken from life itself: Emiral Chatillon is easily deciphered as General Boulanger, the "Pyro case" - as the Dreyfus case, Count Dandulenks - as Count Esterhazy, who should have been put in the dock instead of Dreyfus, Robin Medotochivy - as Prime Minister of Media, Laperson and Larnwe - as Mnlieran and Aristide Briand, etc.

Frans combines real material with fictitious material in his depiction, and the erotic episodes that are not uncommon in the book give the depicted even more emphasized pamphlet character. Such, for example, is the episode involving the seductive Viscountess Olive in the preparation of the Châtillon plot. Such is the amorous scene on the “favorite sofa” between the wife of Minister Seres and Prime Minister Vizier, which led to the fall of the ministry. Such is the journey of the royalist conspirator monk Agarik in the company of two girls of dubious behavior in the car of Prince Cruchot.

France does not seem to have left a single corner where shameful uncleanliness, moral and political decay, greed and the aggressiveness of reactionary forces dangerous for humanity could hide from his vigilance of the satirist. Frans' confidence that capitalist society was incorrigible no longer allowed him here (as was the case in The Crime of Sylvester Bonard) to appeal exclusively to the precepts of humanism or console himself (like M. Bergeret from Modern History) with the dream of socialism, which will change the existing system "with the merciful slowness of nature." It is characteristic that the old, beloved character of Frans - a man of intellectual labor and humanistic convictions - was almost completely shy in Penguin Island, except for individual episodes. And in these episodes, the French hero is depicted in a completely different way. Humor, which previously colored figures of this kind, gave them only special touching, and in Penguin Island it performs a completely different, much more sorrowful function for them - it emphasizes their lack of viability, the vagueness of their ideas and ideas, their impotence in the face of the pressure of reality.

The very names of these episodic characters: Obnubil (lat. obnubilis) - surrounded by clouds, shrouded in fog; Kokiy (French coquille) - shell, shell; Talpa (lat. talpa) - mole; Colomban (from lat. columba) - dove, dove, etc. And the characters live up to their names. Obnubil really has his head in the clouds, idealizing the New Atlantean pseudo-democracy, the chronicler John Talpa is really blind as a mole, and calmly writes his chronicle, not noticing that everything around is destroyed by the war; Colomban (France portrays him with especially bitter humor - after all, Emile Zola was bred under this name, who won France's boundless respect for his work in defense of Dreyfus) and is really clean like a dove, but like a dove, defenseless against an angry pack of political gangsters .

Frans does not limit his humorous reassessment of his favorite hero: Bido-Koky is presented in the most caricatured form: from the world of solitary astronomical calculations and reflections, where Bido-Koky was hidden, like in a shell, he, overwhelmed by a sense of justice, rushes into the thick of the fight around “Pyro’s affairs”, but, having made sure how naive it was to console himself with the hope that justice in the world can be established with one blow, he again goes into his shell. This brief foray into political life demonstrates the illusory nature of his ideas. France does not spare Bido-Kokia, forcing him to go through a farcical romance with an elderly cocotte who decides to adorn herself with the halo of a heroic "citizen". France does not spare himself either, because Bido-Koky is undoubtedly autobiographical in many character traits (we note, by the way, that the first part of the character's surname is consonant with the surname of Thibault, the true name of the writer himself). But it is precisely the ability to so boldly parody his own humanistic illusions that is a sure symptom of the fact that France has already embarked on the path of overcoming them. The path was not easy.

In search of a real social ideal, the French socialists of his time could not help Francis - their opportunistic moods, their inability to lead the revolutionary movement of the working masses of France, were too obvious. How clearly France saw the deplorable confusion that characterized the ideology and political actions of the French socialists is evidenced by many pages of Penguin Island (especially Chapter VIII of Book 6) and many characters in the novel (Phoenix, Sapor, Laperson, Larive, etc.) .

Convinced that his dream of a just social system is unrealizable in states that call themselves democratic, Dr. Obnubil bitterly thinks: “A wise man must stock up on dynamite to blow up this planet. When it shatters into pieces in space, the world will imperceptibly improve and the world conscience will be satisfied, which, however, does not exist. Obnubil's idea that the land that has grown a shameful capitalist civilization deserves complete destruction is accompanied by a very important skeptical caveat - about the senselessness of such destruction.

This angry verdict and this skeptical reservation, as it were, anticipate the gloomy ending of the whole work. Frans' narrative style takes on the tone of the apocalypse here, giving vent to the writer's social anger. And at the same time, the last word in "Penguin Island" remains with the inexhaustible irony of Frans. Book Eight, entitled "The Future," bears the significant subtitle: "History Without End." Let the penguins, returned to their primitive state by a social catastrophe, lead a shepherd's peaceful life for some time on the ruins of former gigantic structures, violence and murder burst into this idyll again - the first signs of a future inhuman "civilization". And again, humanity completes its historical path in the same vicious circle.

Having subjected to skeptical analysis his own formidable conclusion that capitalist civilization should be wiped off the face of the earth, France himself refuted this conclusion. His skepticism was creative skepticism: helping the writer to comprehend not only the contradictions of life, but also the contradictions of his inner world, he did not allow him to be satisfied with the anarchist idea of ​​general destruction, no matter how tempting it was for him.

Penguin Island opens for Frans new period in his search for social truth, the period is perhaps the most difficult. From the idea of ​​the anarchic destruction of civilization, rejected in Penguin Island, his probing thought turned to revolution. And if in the novel The Gods Are Thirsty (1912) Anatole France has not yet found a way out of the contradictions of the social struggle, then the October Revolution helped him in this. There is deep meaning in the fact that the great skeptic, the insightful satirist of bourgeois civilization came to believe in Soviet socialist culture.

Anatole France was born four years before the French Revolution of 1848 and lived for eight decades shattered by political passions, uprisings, coups and wars. A poet, publicist, novelist, satirist, he was an active person who showed extraordinary power of mind and originality of nature. His literary work was the same - passionate, sarcastic, organically combined with dreaminess, a poetic attitude to life.

Anatole France was called "the most French writer, the most Parisian, the most refined." And Leo Tolstoy, noting his truthful and strong talent, said about him: "Europe now has no real artist-writer, except for Anatole France."
Anatole France (real name Anatole Francois Thibault) was born on April 16, 1844 in Paris to the second-hand book dealer Francois Noel and Antoinette Thibault.

Frans explained his pseudonym, already being a venerable writer, by the fact that his father, Francois Noel Thibaut, who came from an ancient family of Angevin winegrowers, was called Frans all his life in this region.

Anatole grew up in an atmosphere of books and a professional interest in the printed word; from childhood, the bookstore was a "treasury" for him, as he later wrote in his memoirs. Already at the age of eight, little Anatole compiled a collection of moralizing aphorisms (for which he even read La Rochefoucauld) and called it New Christian Thoughts and Maxims. He dedicated this work to "dear mother", accompanying it with a note and a promise to publish this book when he grows up.

In the Catholic College of St. Stanislaus, Anatole received a classical education, slightly tinged with theology. Almost all of his college comrades belonged to noble or wealthy families, and the boy suffered from humiliation. Perhaps that is why he became a fighter and a mocker, and began to compose epigrams early. The college made the future writer a rebel for life, forming an independent, caustic and rather unbalanced character.

Literary creativity attracted Anatole as a child. Already at the age of 12, he enjoyed reading Virgil in the original, like his father, he preferred historical writings, and Cervantes' Don Quixote became his reference book in his youth. In 1862, Anatole graduated from college, but did not pass the bachelor's exams, having received unsatisfactory grades in mathematics, chemistry and geography. France nevertheless became a bachelor, having re-passed the exams at the Sorbonne in 1864.

By this time, Frans was already a decently earning professional critic and editor. He collaborated in two bibliographic journals, and in addition, he tried his hand at the art of versification, criticism, and the dramatic genre. In 1873, the first book of poems by Frans "Golden Poems" was published, where nature, love were sung, and reflections on life and death were side by side.
In 1876, after a ten-year wait, Frans was included in the staff of the Senate library - to the great satisfaction of his father: finally, Anatole had both a position and a stable income.

In April 1877, Anatole Francois Thibaut got married. It was a traditional bourgeois marriage: the bride had to get married, and the groom had to get marital status. Twenty-year-old Marie-Valery de Sauville - the daughter of a major official of the Ministry of Finance - was an enviable party for the son of a second-hand book dealer and the grandson of a village shoemaker. Frans was proud of his wife's genealogy, admired her timidity and taciturnity. True, it later turned out that the wife's silence was due to disbelief in his talent as a writer and contempt for this profession.

A significant dowry Valerie went to the arrangement of the mansion on the street near the Bois de Boulogne. Here Frans began to work hard. In the library of the Senate, he was known as a negligent worker, but as for literary work, here the writer did not reject a single proposal from the publishers, collaborating simultaneously with five dozen magazines. He edited the classics, wrote numerous articles - not only on literature, but also on history, political economy, archeology, paleontology, human origins, etc.
In 1881, Frans became a father, his daughter Suzanne was born, whom he dearly loved all his life. In the year of his daughter's birth, Frans' first book was also published, in which he found his hero, Sylvester Bonnard, and with him his own individual style. The book "The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard, Fellow of the Institute" won the French Academy Prize. In the Academy's decision on the award, it was said: it was awarded to "an elegant, outstanding, perhaps exceptional work."

In 1883 Frans became a regular chronicler in The Illustrated World. Every two weeks his review "Paris Chronicle" appears, covering different aspects of French life. From 1882 to 1896 he will write over 350 articles and essays.
Thanks to the success of "Sylvester Bonnard" and the extraordinary popularity of the "Paris Chronicle", France enters high society. In 1883 he met Leontine Armand de Caiavet, whose salon was one of the most brilliant literary, political and artistic salons in Paris. This smart, imperious aristocrat was the same age as Frans. From her he heard what he needed so much at home: an encouraging assessment of his work. Long-term, jealous, tyrannical devotion to Leontina will fill the writer's personal life for a long time. And his wife, Valerie France, every year will increasingly experience a militant need to sort things out and settle scores. Alien to the spiritual life of her husband, she managed to make alien to France and their own house, which he filled with books, a collection of paintings, engravings, antiques. The situation in the house escalated to such an extent that Frans stopped talking to his wife altogether, communicating with her only by notes. Finally, one day, unable to bear the silence, Valerie asked her husband: "Where were you last night?" In response to this, Frans silently left the room and left the house in what he was: in a dressing gown, with a crimson velvet "cardinal" cap on his head, with a tray in his hand, on which there was an inkwell and a started article. Defiantly walking through the streets of Paris in this form, he rented a furnished room under the fictitious name of Germain. In such an unusual way, he left home, finally breaking off family relations, which he had tried to maintain in recent years only for the sake of his beloved daughter.

In 1892, Anatole France filed for divorce. From now on, the ambitious Leontina became his faithful and devoted friend. She did everything to make France famous: she herself looked for material for him in libraries, made translations, put manuscripts in order, read proofs, wanting to free him from work that seemed boring to him. She also helped him improve the small Villa Said near the Bois de Boulogne, which soon turned into a museum filled with works of art and furniture from different centuries, countries and schools.

In 1889, the novel "Tais", which later became famous, was published. In it, France finally found that way of self-expression, where he had no equal. Conventionally, it could be called intellectual prose, combining the image of real life with the author's reflections on its meaning.

After the publication of the novels "The Gods Thirst", "Rise of the Angels" and "The Red Lily", the fame of Anatole France acquired a worldwide sound. Letters began to come to him from everywhere, and not only as a famous novelist, but also as a sage and philosopher. In numerous portraits, however, the writer tried not to look majestic, but rather elegant.

Unfortunately, sad changes also affected the personal life of the writer. France's daughter, his "tenderly beloved Suzon", in 1908, having already divorced her first husband, fell in love with Michel Psicari, the grandson of the famous religious philosopher Renan, and became his wife. Anatole France did not like this alliance. He moved away from his daughter, and as it turned out, forever. His relationship with Leontina de Caiave also worsened. For a long time she nurtured and took care of the talent of Frans, taking care of his success, proud that she helps him, knowing that he loves her too. Every year they traveled around Italy, visited Greece several times. However, in her old age, Leontina becomes more and more vigilant and jealous. She wanted to control her friend's every move, which was beginning to tire and annoy Frans. The bad mood of the writer was exacerbated by guilt. The fact is that Leontina's health, already fragile, was shaken in the summer of 1909, when rumors reached her that France, sailing on a steamer to Brazil to lecture on Rabelais, could not resist the coquetry of a fifty-year-old actress of the French Comedy. Jealous Leontina took to her bed. “This is a child,” she said to her friend, “if you knew how weak, naive he is, how easy it is to fool him!” Returning to Paris, France confessed to his unworthy frivolity. Together with Leontina, he went to Kapian, her Vacation home, where Madame de Caiave suddenly fell ill with pneumonia and died on January 12, 1910.

For Frans, the death of Leontina was a huge emotional trauma. The grief was helped by another devoted woman, Ottilie Kosmutze, a Hungarian writer known in her homeland under the pseudonym Sandor Kemeri. At one time she was the writer's secretary and with her sensitivity, kindness helped "to cure a great mind" of depression.

The years of the First World War made Anatole France old. From Paris, he moved to the small estate of Bechelrie, near the province of Touraine, where Emma Laprevote, the former maid of Leontine de Caiavet, lived. This woman was sick and poor. Frans placed her in the hospital, and after her recovery she became the writer's housekeeper, taking care of him. In 1918, Frans suffered a new grief - his daughter, Suzanne Psicari, died of influenza. Her thirteen-year-old son Lucien was left an orphan (Michel Psicari died in the war in 1917), and Frans took care of his beloved grandson, who later became the only heir of the writer.

In 1921, Frans was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for brilliant literary achievements, marked by sophistication of style, deeply suffered humanism and a truly Gallic temperament."

Throughout his long life, Anatole France rarely complained about his health. Until the age of eighty, he almost did not get sick. However, in April 1922, a vascular spasm paralyzed him for several hours. And the writer admitted that he could no longer "work as before." But, nevertheless, until his death, he retained good spirits and amazing performance. He dreamed of visiting Brussels, London, finishing a book of philosophical dialogues called "Sous la rose", which can be translated as "Not for prying ears".
In July 1924, Frans went to bed with a diagnosis of the last stage of sclerosis. The doctors warned the writer's friends and relatives that his hours were numbered. On the morning of October 12, Frans said with a smile: "This is my last day!" And so it happened. On the night of October 13, 1924, "the most French, the most Parisian, the most refined writer" died.

As the writer Dushan Breschi said about him: "Despite all the vicissitudes of critical fashion, Anatole France will always stand next to B. Shaw, as the great satirist of the era, and next to Rabelais, Moliere and Voltaire, as one of the greatest French wit."