Meet...novelist Anatole France

What should you know about Anatole France?

Anatole France is a study in contradictions. The son of a bookseller, France was born Jacques Anatole Thibault in 1844 in Paris, France. Although he is one of the major figures in French literature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, earning the Nobel Prize for literature in 1921, many of his works were put on the Index of Forbidden Books of the Roman Catholic Church. An unenthusiastic student in college, he was later elected to the Académie Française, an organization that regulates the French language by setting standards for grammar and vocabulary. He was both highly respected and deemed controversial.

His career followed many paths. He was an assistant in his father's bookstore until the man retired. He worked as a editorial assistant, then was hired to write about contemporary writers for Le Temps, a Parisian newspaper. It became a weekly column, which led to France publishing four volumes of the collected columns. He then took a position as an assistant librarian for the French Senate in 1876, working there until 1890. His election to the Académie Française came in 1896.

How many books did he publish?


France was extremely prolific, publishing collections of short stories, literary criticism, plays and novels. He published Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard in 1881, which proved to be his breakthrough work. The story follows an elderly scholar as he searches for an ancient ecclesiastical literary document, which requires some dubious and possibly illegal acts on his part. The book, like a lot of France's writing, criticized the church and clergy. Other books of note are (1893) La Rôtisserie de la Reine Pédauque (At the Sign of the Reine Pédauque), his most celebrated novel; (1885) Le Livre de mon ami (My Friend's Book), a semi-autobiographical novel; (1895) a collection of short stories Le Puits de Sainte Claire (The Well of Saint Claire) and La Vie au Fleur (The Bloom of Life) was his last book in 1922. His collected works, published over the 10 years after his death in 1924, span 25 volumes.


In 1921 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature for "his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament." You can find collections of his quotations on several websites. My favorite quotation:

"To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream, not only plan but also believe."

Are his books still available?

Yes. I found over two dozen different titles on Amazon and on Alibris. Several of his novels have been adapted for film and television, but I was not able to find any DVD or VHS copies.




Sources: Pegasos, The Literature Network, NobelPrize.org