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Anatole France

Penguin Island Hardcover – January 1, 1940

by Anatole France (Author)

55 ratings

3.7 on Goodreads

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"Mael a scion of a royal family of Cambria was sent in his ninth year to the Abbey of Yvern so that he might there study both sacred and profane learning?"

Language

English
Publisher

Amereon Ltd
Publication date

January 1, 1940
Dimensions

5.75 x 1 x 8.75 inches
ISBN-10

0891905405
ISBN-13

978-0891905400
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Anatole France
10
Paperback
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185
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-. France, Anatole
Leather Bound
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Amereon Ltd (January 1, 1940)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0891905405
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0891905400
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.35 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1 x 8.75 inches

Customer Reviews:
55 ratings

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Customer reviews

4 out of 5

55 global ratings

5 star		56%
4 star		13%
3 star		13%
2 star		10%
1 star		8%

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Shannon

Not a serious story

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 4, 2021

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I never read anything by this author and didn't find a review before I read it. The book started out sounding like it was going to be a serious religious\ spiritual journey kind of story. Then the old priest, who is mostly blind, accidentally baptizes an island full of penguin.

The history of the evolving penguin start out pretty funny. Some pretending to slay dragons, stories of not so saintly penguin saints, and horrible penguin kings. They're kind of absurd stories. Some very funny.

Then the end of the book comes. Its kind of takes a different tone than the rest of the book. It doesn't quite fit the book. In fact its kind of full of death and destruction. I'm not sure where the author was trying to go with that ending. Besides that, I enjoyed most of the book.

3 people found this helpful

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wiredweird

Outrageous satire

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 22, 2005

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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

26 people found this helpful

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Daniel Myers

Vive L'Empereur Penguin!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 25, 2009

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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!

10 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

4 stars

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 12, 2013

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I liked how the book started out actually describing the penguins as penguins, i even liked some of the stories about the penguins after they changed, but most of the stuff afterwards is more centered around philosophy and religion and things like that that have drifted away from the penguin idea and into entirely different subjects. The first few chapters are entertaining...the rest, of what I've read through so far, drifted too much from the main subject...still interesting, though. Just harder to read.

One person found this helpful

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BJ Presscott

CRITIQUE IN SATIRE DELIVERS SERIOUS MESSAGE AND SERIOUS LAUGHTER!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 12, 2020

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I loved Penguin Island the first time I read it and every time I reread It. it is one of those books you want to return to every so many years. Anatole France used his talent to critique human nature with sometimes riotous satire. If you have a sense of irony and a sense of humor, you will love this book!

4 people found this helpful

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ras

It was a difficult read for me since it is a satire and I find satirical writing to be tedious. There are however good points ab

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 16, 2016

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I read this book for a book club. It was a difficult read for me since it is a satire and I find satirical writing to be tedious. There are however good points about the book. I found several of the authors insights to be credible and his vision of the future is unnervingly accurate. So I gave it a low score mostly because of my personal taste not the quality of writing. The author has a Nobel Prize in literature after all.

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