A mummer's tale

by Anatole France (Creator)

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Genres: Classics, France, Fiction

254 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1902

About the author

French critic Anatole France, pen name of Jacques Anatole François Thibault wrote sophisticated, often satirical short stories and novels, including Penguin Island (1908), and won the Nobel Prize of 1921 for literature.

Anatole France began his career as a poet and a journalist. From 1867, he as a journalist composed articles and notices.

In 1869, Le Parnasse Contemporain published La Part de Madeleine of his poems. In 1875, he sat on the committee in charge of the third such compilation. He moved Paul Verlaine and Stéphane Mallarmé aside.

Skeptical old scholar Sylvester Bonnard, protagonist of famous Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard (1881), embodied own personality of the author. The academy praised its elegant prose.

Anatole France in La Rotisserie de la Reine Pedauque (1893) ridiculed belief in the occult and in Les Opinions de Jerome Coignard (1893) captured the atmosphere of the fin de siècle.

People elected him to the Académie française in 1896.
People falsely convicted Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer, of espionage. Anatole France took an important part in the affair, signed manifesto of Émile Zola to support Dreyfus, and authored Monsieur Bergeret in 1901.

After the nearsighted Abbot Mael baptized the animals in error, France in later work depicts the transformation into human nature in 1908.

People considered most profound La Revolte des Anges (1914). It tells of Arcade, the guardian angel of Maurice d'Esparvieu. Arcade falls in love, joins the revolutionary movement of angels, and towards the end recognizes the meaningless overthrow of God unless "in ourselves and in ourselves alone we attack and destroy Ialdabaoth."

People awarded him "in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament" in 1921.

In 1922, the Catholic Church put entire works of France on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Prohibited Books).

He died, and people buried his body in the Neuilly-sur-Seine community cemetery near Paris.

Reviews

[Old Man JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book by Anatole France. This book follows a cast of actors, primarily Chevalier and Felice Nanteuil. The two were lovers until Felice took on another lover and Chevalier committed suicide in front of her. As in almost all of France's books the story is a critique of religion and, in this instance, it's views on suicide and morality. I'm always amazed at France's ability to point out the absurdities of religion in his incredible prose. As in all of his books there are several quotable passages and one I especially liked is: "We practice moral indifference with regard to animals. We practice it in the case of savage races. This enables us to exterminate them without remorse. That's what is known as the colonial policy. Nor do we find that believers exact a high degree of morality from their god."

[Tina Tamman · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have been sorting out my books and, since Anatole France won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1921, it was the turn of this book. Quite an old-fashioned story about a love that is thwarted by a dead rival, either badly written or badly translated, or possibly both.
However, it made me think how and why some books survive and others don't. This has not.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written with all of France's usual cleverness and wit despite being a very forgettable story.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been a long time since I've read any Anatole France. He's one of my favourite authors but I'd read pretty much everything I'd been able to find of his in translation. But then on holiday I found about 8 more books (of which I bought 4). This was a lovely short slice of life novel. It was kind of like a better version of Nana. It focused on a girl who worked as an actress in a theatre and had several rather disastrous affairs. One of the things I liked best was that the girl was rather horrified by the fact that one of the other actresses liked women. When the wise elderly doctor heard this he told her about Plato's Origin of Love story and how it was perfectly natural and normal for women to feel that way. (How much I do love early 20th century French literature for their portrayals of lesbians!). It made me happy that the character who was obviously the author's spokesman felt this way. The story was good, there were a lot of nice introspective and philosophical bits which were amusing and interesting. It reminded me just how much I love Anatole France and I'm looking forward to reading the rest.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

An actor in Paris is in love with a women who spurns him. He tells her that he did not want her and would never allow her to be with another man. He follows her to her tryst and kills himself in front of she and her lover. A ghost story, but a story that depicts human nature to be a very selfish state.

[Misza Ćwieluch · Rating 5 out of 5]

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