Audiobook · read by volunteers
Penguin Island
Anatole France (1844–1924)
Read by Michael Sirois · 62 chapters · 9 h 04
About the book
A short-sighted old priest, Father Maël, sails to a remote island and, mistaking a colony of penguins for human beings, solemnly baptizes them. Heaven is thrown into confusion. A council of saints must decide what to do about a flock of newly christened birds, and the answer is the beginning of a long and wickedly funny history.
Anatole France’s Penguin Island follows these creatures through the ages, from their first scraps of property and law to the pleasures and pitfalls of civilization. Behind the feathers, readers will recognize nations, churches, financiers and politicians, and the author’s irony spares almost nobody. It is a satire that moves briskly through 62 short chapters in about nine hours, mixing mock-chronicle with sly observation of human vanity. If you like your wit dry and your fables sharpened to a point, this is a delightful companion.
Introduction
Anatole France (1844–1924) was a leading French man of letters at the turn of the twentieth century, admired for his elegant style and his scepticism. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1921. Penguin Island, which appeared in French in 1908 as L’Île des Pingouins, is one of his best-known satires, and it looks at human behaviour by the simple device of watching it in birds.
The opening premise is comic: the near-sighted Father Maël mistakes penguins for people and baptizes them, which forces the heavenly authorities to ponder a theological puzzle. From there, the book takes the form of a mock history of the penguin people, moving through successive periods in a way that deliberately recalls the history of France. Readers of the time would have caught many allusions to contemporary politics and public controversies. Today the targets are more general: pride, greed, the love of order and the habit of making grand principles out of convenient ones.
The English translation recorded here is by A. W. Evans. The book is read in 62 sections, for a total of just over nine hours, by volunteers for LibriVox. Because the narrative is episodic, it is easy to enjoy in small portions, one period of penguin history at a time.
Why listen today? Satire ages well when its subject is human nature rather than a single scandal. France writes with a calm, ironic tone that makes his sharpest remarks all the more effective, and the fable form keeps the book light even when the point is serious. It is a good choice for anyone who enjoys Voltaire or Swift and wants something of the same spirit from a later age.
Public domain
Anatole France died in 1924: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text