Customer Reviews

Penguin Island

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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

This book is quite fun to read, I found. But it is very uneven. Briefly, it mocks every institution known to man, including the church, especially the church, so much so that this book is still on the Vatican's Index of verboten writings. Thus, any Roman Catholic reader risks excommunication in reading it. Just warning you!

The conceit is that a group of penguins are inadvertently baptised by a half-blind saint. There follows a deliciously Jesuitical debate in Heaven over whether they now deserve souls. It turns out that they do. But please to ask a member of the aforesaid order on exactly how the logic of all this parses. It's altogether too abstruse for me!

There are other very delicious parts. But, the writing becomes a bit sloppy in points. France frequently forgets his conceit of the nation of Penguinia and calls it what it is: France. Also, too much of the book is devoted to The Dreyfus Affair (herein called Pyrot).

But the book is short enough that one shouldn't allow the unevenness to stand in the way of licking one's lips over jeux d'esprit such as the following declaration by Doctor Obnubile:

"The wise men will collect enough dynamite to blow up this planet. When its fragments fly through space an imperceptible amelioration will be accomplished in the universe and a satisfaction will be given to the universal conscience. Moreover, this universal conscience does not exist."

Have a blast!

If you like your satire served with brilliant wit with a touch of irony and a side of righteous anger, then Anatole France (the pen name of Jacques Anatole François Thibault) is your writer. You can credit Anatole France, winner of the 1921 Nobel Prize in Literature, with the famous maxim: "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."

Penguin Island starts with a fantastic premise. A missionary, half blind, comes across the island of penguins and baptizes them. Up in heaven, confounded with this act, the Lord gives the birds souls and intellect. France then uses his new civilization to satirize almost anything within range of his scathing intellect. The book generally parallels the development of human civilization. The longest chapter, the story of Pyrot and the 80,000 Trusses of Hay is a blistering critique of the French government's frame-up of Alfred Dreyfus. This chapter alone justifies the price of the book.

For those who have come to this review through my Tour de France history or my cycling commentary, it should be noted that the Dreyfus Affair was the proximate cause of the creation of Tour de France.

Anatole France is a genius. I heartily recommend this book.
-Bill McGann, Author of "The Story of the Tour de France"

When a bumbling priest accidently baptizes a population of penguins, God is left with a cosmic problem. The solution results in the creation of the Penguin race, and is the beginning of the long history of Penguinia.

Anatole France has essentially written an entire farcical history book, satirizing various stages of human civilization. First he mocks early religion and mythology, prominently featuring the exploits of a saucy and quick-witted young woman, who in later Penguin history will be known as Saint Orberosia, despite her history of infidelity and opportunistic lies. He follows this up with lampoons of the middle age and modern times, both of which center on the relationship between government and religion. The church, composed of saintly followers of the holy Orberosia, is a constant threat to the representative government, alternately instigating baseless scandals (a la the Dreyfus affair), plotting revolutions, and conspiring to start unprovoked wars. Finally France provides us with a very dystopian vision of the future, where Penguinia becomes a soulless commercial metropolis under attack by disillusioned terrorists.

The premise of this book is clearly inspired, but I found it hard to read. It really is a history book, which means that it skips quickly from story to story, never staying long with any particular set of characters. I found the stories involving love and relationships to be sarcastically poignant, while some of the political insights display an astounding amount of relevance to modern events. For example, reflecting on the Penguin government - "The Penguin democracy did not itself govern, it obeyed a financial oligarchy which formed opinion by means of the newspapers, and held in its hand the representatives, the ministers, and the president. It controlled the finances of the republic, and directed the foreign affairs of the country as if it were possessed of sovereign power." Hmm. When speaking of the political leader they hope to groom into the internal destroyer of the Penguin republic - "It is not necessary for the man we choose to be of brilliant intellect. I would even prefer him to be of no great ability. Stupid people show an inimitable grace in roguery." I at least can't help but be reminded of certain modern political leader.

Although I didn't enjoy reading the book as much as I'd hoped, all of the witty phrases and lucid insights make Penguin Island worth the time it takes to slog through a whole imaginary history.

Penguin Island by Anatole France. Translated by A. W. Evans. Published by MobileReference (mobi).

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 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!

This book is almost one hundred years old and it is still very relevant as a source of universal unchanging truths.

I am reading it as an E-book in the original French. France has a lovely style in his native language which is at the same time poetic, erudite and easy to read. Reading classic satire makes you realize how we are fundamentally the same and will probably never change. I was struck by a section punctuating the conclusion of the Pyrot ( Dreyfuss ) affair in which he comments that it was back to business as usual:

"The government remained under the control of the major financial institutions, the army dedicated exclusively to the defense of capital, the navy served only as a source of orders for the steel industry and the rich refused to pay their fair share of taxes. The poor, as before, paid for them."

Sound like any place you know?

If satire is your thing this is good stuff. It helps to be familiar with French pomposity and European history.

This novel simply isn't like anything else ever written.

A monk visiting an island populated by nothing but penguins accidentally baptizes them, and the saints in heaven debate what is to be done, since baptism can only be done to those with souls. The conclusion is to make the penguins human! The remainder of the book is a history of Penguin Island, which is a clever parody of European history. It may not be everyone's piece of pie, but I defy anyone to say that they have seen its like before.

Though this was published in 1909 you would swear it just came from Newsweek, Time or The Atlantic magazines. This is both comforting and disturbing to know that there is nothing new under the sun. Same old politics, revising history, putting a new spin on current events and just plain old human tendencies crop up in this great little book. Anatole France captured the daily lives we're familiar with and shows that it's an ongoing story since time began. Comforting because you feel that we're not the only group of people to live through turmoil and disturbing because "here we go AGAIN". Sometimes it seems a bit tedious but well worth the read.