The true Anatole France which hides under the sentimental old gentlemen, so cynical and so human, born so cold and to-day so young, is the irreverent, jolly, blasphemous Frenchman of the Middle Ages. I have said this often and quoted much in support because I want to make the English understand what is so difficult for them to understand: the Gaul and his joviality. Still I cannot resist quoting a story from Penguin Island, which I am compelled to condense:
There was once a king and he had a beautiful queen. At their court lived a young monk, called Oddoul, who resisted the devil and even woman. So the queen, being woman and ambitious, attempted his seduction. She called him into her chamber, and he would not look upon her. She held out her arms to him, and he fled. Then in her fury, as he fled, she called the guard and accused Oddoul of having attempted to ravish her. He was thrown into gaol. But in the night, as he waited for the time to come when he would be led out to be burnt alive, the cell was visited by the angel of the Lord. And the angel said: “What? Hast thou not done what the Queen accuses thee of?” “No,” said Oddoul. “Then,” cried the angel, “what art thou doing here, idiot?” The angel of the Lord opened the door and Oddoul found himself driven out of the prison. Scarcely had he gone down into the street when a hand from high above emptied upon his head a pailful of slops. And he thought: “Mysterious are Thy designs, O Lord, and Thy ways impenetrable.”
It is not easy to understand Anatole France because, like other men, he is neither good nor evil; he is merely what he is. I do not ask anyone to forgive him because he loved much, nor to try and understand, if that is the only way of forgiving him. It is very much better to thank him for having brought into the dusty old lumber-room of stale ideas the breath of the new; for having proclaimed pity in a world that had slid into callousness; for having been gay when the creeds bade us be sad. To do that, if one can, is enough, for though one may not understand him quite, the times not yet being enlightened, one can offer him the supreme tribute of loving him without understanding.
A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ANATOLE FRANCE’S PRINCIPAL WRITINGS
FRENCH TITLES
Note.—These bibliographies are not the work of Mr W. L. George.
Alfred de Vigny (Bachelin-Deflorenne). 1868.
Poëmes Dorés (Lemerre). 1873.
Les Noces Corinthiennes (Lemerre). 1902.
Jocaste et le Chat Maigre (Calmann-Lévy). 1879. (Th. Nelson.) 1912.
Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard (Calmann-Lévy). 1881.
Les Désirs de Jean Servien (Lemerre). 1882. (Calmann-Lévy.) 1907.
Le Livre de Mon Ami (Calmann-Lévy). 1885.
Balthasar et la Reine Balkis (Calmann-Lévy). 1889. (Carteret.) 1899.
Thais (Calmann-Lévy). 1890. (Ramagnol.) 1900. (Ferroud.) 1909.
L’Etui de Nacre (Calmann-Lévy). 1892.
La Rôtisserie de la Reine Pédauque (Calmann-Lévy). 1893.
Les Opinions de M. Jérome Coignard (Calmann-Lévy). 1893.
L’Elvire de Lamartine (Champion). 1893.
Le Lys Rouge (Calmann-Lévy). 1894. (Romagnol.) 1903.
Le Jardin d’Epicure (Calmann-Lévy). 1895. Le Puits de Sainte-Claire (Calmann-Lévy). 1895. (Le Livre Contemporain.) 1908.
Clio (Calmann-Lévy). 1900.
L’Orme du Mail [Histoire Contemporaine] (Calmann-Lévy). 1897.
Le Mannequin d’Osier [Histoire Contemporaine] (Calmann-Lévy). 1897.
L’Anneau d’Améthyste [Histoire Contemporaine] (Calmann-Lévy). 1899.
Monsieur Bergeret à Paris [Histoire Contemporaine] (Calmann-Lévy). 1901.
Pierre Nozière (Lemerre). 1899.
Crainquebille, Putois, Riquet (Calmann-Lévy). 1904.
Histoire Comique (Calmann-Lévy). 1903; 1911.
Sur la Pierre Blanche (Calmann-Lévy). 1905.
L’Eglise et la République (E. Pelletan). 1905.
Vie de Jeanne d’Arc (Calmann-Lévy). 1908. (Manzi-Joyant.) 1909.
L’Ile des Pingouins (Calmann-Lévy). 1908.
Les Contes de Jacques Tournebroche (Calmann-Lévy). 1908.
Les Sept Femmes de Barbe-Bleue (Calmann-Lévy). 1909.
Les Dieux ont Soif (Calmann-Lévy). 1912.
La Révolte des Anges (Calmann-Lévy). 1914.
La Vie Littéraire, Series i., ii., iii. and iv. (Calmann-Lévy). 1891.
Le Génie Latin (A. Lemerre). 1913. (E. Pelletan.) 1909.
L’Abeille (Charavay Frères). 1883.
All the above are Paris publishers.