FRANCE, ANATOLE (1844 )

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FRANCE, ANATOLE (1844 ) , French critic, essayist and novelist (whose real name was Jacques Anatole Thibault), was born in Paris on the 16th of April 1844. His father was a book-seller, one of the last of the booksellers, if we are to believe the Goncourts, into whose

establishment

ESTABLISHMENT (0. Fr. establissement, Fr. etablissement,
late
- LATE
Norm. Fr. establishement, from O. Fr. establir, Fr. etablir, Lat. stabilire, to make stable)

men came, not merely to order and buy, but to dip, and turn over pages and discuss. As a child he used to listen to the nightly talks on literary subjects which took place in his father's shop. Nurtured in an atmosphere so essentially bookish, he turned naturally to literature. In 1868 his first work appeared, a study of Alfred de Vigny, followed in 1873 by a volume of verse, Les Poemes dotes, dedicated to Leconte de

Lisle

LISLE, ALICE (c. 1614-1685)

, and, as such a dedication suggests, an outcome of the " Parnassian "

movement

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 man of great literary skill and cultured taste, are scarcely the poems of a man with whom verse is the highest form of expression.
He was to find his richest vein in prose. He himself, avowing his preference for a simple, or seemingly simple, style as compared with the artistic style, vaunted by the Goncourtsa style compounded of neologisms and " rare " epithets, and startling forms of expressionobserves: " A simple style is like white light. It is complex, but not to outward seeming. In language, a beautiful and desirable simplicity is but an appearance, and results only from the good order and sovereign

economy

ECONOMY

of the various parts of speech." And thus one may say of his own style that its beautiful translucency is the result of many qualitiesfelicity, grace, the harmonious grouping of words, a perfect measure. Anatole France is a sceptic. The essence of his philosophy, if a spirit so light; evanescent, elusive, can be said to have a philosophy, is doubt. He is a doubter in religion, metaphysics, morals, politics, aesthetics, sciencea 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 personas in the Jardin d'epicure (1894) from which the above extracts are taken, or Le Livre de mon 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. Jerome Coignard (1893), or L'Orme du mail (1897), Le Mannequin d'

osier

OSIER (through Fr. from
Late
- LATE
Lat. osaria, auxaria, a bundle of osier or willow twigs)

(1897), L'Anneau d'amethyste (1899), and M. Bergeret a Paris (1901), he entrusts the expression of his opinions, dramatically, to some fictitious characterthe abbe Coignard, for instance, projecting, as it were, from the 18th century some very effective criticisms on the popular political theories of contemporary Franceor the M. Bergeret of the four last-named novels, which were published with the collective title of Histoire contemporaine. This

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

deals with some 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 combination. Neither should reference be omitted to his Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard (1881), crowned by the Institute, nor to works more distinctly of fancy, such as Balthasar (1889), the story of one of the Magi or Thais (1890), the story of an actress and courtesan of Alexandria, whom a hermit converts, but with the loss of his own soul. His ironic comedy, Crainquebille (Renaissance theatre, 1903), was founded on his novel (1902) of the same year. His more

recent

RECENT

work includes his anti-clerical Vie de Jeanne &Arc (19o8); his pungent satire the Ile des penguins (1908); and a volume of stories, Les 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 historical research in his fiction (as in the stories in Sur une pierre blanche). As a criticsee the Vie litteraire (18881892), reprinted mainly from Le Tempshe is graceful and appreciative. Academic in the best sense, he found a place in the French Academy, taking the seat vacated by Lesseps, and was received into that

body

BODY

on the 24th of December 1896. In the affaire Dreyfus he sided with M. Zola.
For studies of M. Anatole France's talent see Maurice Barres, Anatole France (1885); Jules Lemaitre, Les Contemporains (2nd

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

, 1886); and G. Brandes, Anatole France (1908). In 1908 Frederic Chapman began an edition of The works of Anatole France in an English translation (John Lane).

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