Penguin Island
by Anatole France
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Very Good+/No
- Seller
-
West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
France wrote 25 novels; Penguin Island (1908) was his 21st.
It is a sprawling satirical novel about a fictitious island, inhabited by great auks, that existed off the northern coast of Europe. A wayward Christian missionary monk lands on the island and sees the upright, unafraid auks as a sort of pre-Christian society of noble pagans. Mostly blind from reflections from the polar ice and deaf from the roar of the sea, having mistaken the animals for humans, he baptizes them. This causes a problem for The Lord, who normally only allows humans to be baptized. After consulting with saints and theologians in Heaven, He resolves the dilemma by converting the baptized birds to humans with only a few physical traces of their ornithological origin,and giving them each a soul. Thus begins the history of Penguinia, and from there the history mirrors that of France (and Western Europe, including German-speaking areas and the British Isles).
This copy was published by The Bodley Head in 1927. It looks pink in the photos, but it is beautiful orange boards with an impressed design on the cover and gold lettering on the spine. 5" x 7 1/2"
There are no marks of any kind on the inside; there is a tiny mark on the cover that looks like pencil. Lovely book. 345 pages,Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Louise Aird (CA)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 107
- Title
- Penguin Island
- Author
- Anatole France
- Format/Binding
- Very good
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good+
- Jacket Condition
- No
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- The Bodley Head
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1927
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Keywords
- Great Auks, Christian Missionary, Pagans, Religious Satire
- Bookseller catalogs
- French Literature; Humor and Satire; World History; Philosophy & Religion; Fantasy & Science Fiction;
Terms of Sale
Louise Aird
About the Seller
Louise Aird
About Louise Aird
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....