Penguin Island [Paperback]

Anatole France (Author), Andrew Moore (Editor), Mead & Co. Todd (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2005

Anatole France (Jacques Anatole François Thibault; 1844-1924. Member of the Académie Française. Awarded the Nobel Price for Literature in 1921. Penguin Island (1908) has been called "the best social satire ever written" (Toni Ungerer). The story takes place in Antarctica, where a fictional penguin population mirrors the foibles of human beings. With the devil's help, a missionary arrives in Antartica and baptizes the local penguins. With God's help, he then turns them into human beings. As a result, the penguins must now try to figure out how to live together and create a civilization. They experience their own barbaric Ancient Times and Middle Ages, and in their efforts to create a modern age, they undergo social conflicts and devastating wars. Written in the spirit of rationalism and enlightenment,Penguin Island is a wickedly funny, incisive portrait of religious fanatacism.

Editorial Reviews

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--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Mondial (November 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595690298
• ISBN-13: 978-1595690296
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,052,814 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars savagely funny critique of human nature, July 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Penguin Island (Hardcover)

I first read this book at the age of 12. I remember receiving it for Christmas--an irony in itself. I recollect my feelings of incredulity as I read the chapters--how could such blasphemy go unpunished?! And then, slowly, my disbelief turned into pure joy at the nose-thumbing this author gave all institutions. The Church, the State, Socialism--you name it, he mocked it. I recommend this book for all those who continue to believe in Ideals.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Should have been a Monty Python movie!!!, September 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Penguin Island (Hardcover)

Anatole France spares no one in this satire about the the birth life and death of the Penguin empire. Starting from the baptism of the Penguins by St. Mael (and the associated debates in Heaven about the devine status of penguins) through the founding and subsequent fall of the empire, this story pokes fun at the Church, military, courts and every political movement known to man. The trial of poor Pyrot had me in stitches. If you like satire, READ THIS BOOK.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outrageous satire, June 22, 2005

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Penguin Island (Paperback)

A pious monk discovers a previously unknown island. He is half deaf and more than half blind with age. Even so, he can see that the diminutive people here are gentle, serious, and not yet Christian. He performs a mass baptism, not realizing that he has created Christian penguins.

So begins France's straight-faced satire of the church, the state, and anything else he can think of. First, the innocents must clothe their nakedness. This creates modesty for them, but also creates immodesty, lust-inducing arts of skirt and bodice, and avarice for finer clothes and baubles. Next, they develop property law, proven by disputes over farmland. They create a noble class, when one demonstrates his nobility by killing another penguin and taking his land. They create a royalty, by means of fraud and extortion. They even create their first saint, the miraculous virgin Ste. Orberosia. She seemed best known for her miraculous virginity, which she proclaimed until her dying day (and we don't argue with saints). In fact, she was able to proclaim her virginity even after dozens or hundreds of encounters that would have destroyed it in less holy a woman - miraculous indeed. Perhaps the penguins weren't born subject to Original Sin, but they're mighty quick with the imitation.

The History of Penguinia moves forward, through ages of avarice, adultery, elaboarate scams, false accusations, and all the usual goings-on of the political world. The events are painfully funny, right down to the cynical, cyclical view of modern times, locked into an historical rhythm. The views are painful only because they're so very true.

I imagine they would have been even more true for me if I knew more about the political current events of France and Europe circa 1900, when this book was being written. I also suspect some wordplay in characters' names that would have been amusing if I knew French. It is a measure of Anatole France's genuius that now, nearly a hundred years later, it's still true enough for a modern reader, and one unfamiliar with the book's original milieu. I imagine this book will reward the prepared reader even more richly.

This is satire at its finest - funny, but with an edge, and funny because it's so very true.

//wiredweird