Anatole France
1844–1924
Biography
Anatole France was the pen name of François-Anatole Thibault, who was born in Paris in 1844 and died in 1924. He wrote poems, literary criticism and novels, and in his own day he was regarded as the model French man of letters. His manner is dry, ironic and sceptical, and he turned a teasing eye on the certainties of his time. He was elected to the Académie française, and in 1921 he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, which praised the nobility of his style and his warm sympathy for people.
His best-known novels include The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881), Thaïs (1890) and Penguin Island (1908). Several of his books sold very well. The novelist Marcel Proust is widely thought to have drawn on France when he created the writer Bergotte in In Search of Lost Time. France's fiction usually mocks the self-important beliefs of politics, religion and scholarship, and it does so with a light touch that won him a broad readership.
On this site he is represented by Les Dieux ont soif, published in 1912 and known in English as The Gods Are Athirst. The novel is set in Paris during the Reign of Terror of 1793 and 1794, and it follows a young painter who is caught up in the violence of the revolutionary tribunals. It shows the satirical scepticism that marked his work, and it is also a study of how revolutionary zeal can slide into cruelty.
This biography was written by a language model. The sources below are where to check it; treat details with care.
Books
Les Dieux ont soif
by Anatole France
In Paris during the Terror, Évariste Gamelin, a poor and idealistic painter, is appointed a juror of the Revolutionary Tribunal. His faith in the Republic grows harder as the guillotine works ever faster.
Summary written by Claude Opus 5.5.