9 h 9 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 9 h 9 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if civilization begins with a saint baptizing penguins by mistake—and power never grows any wiser?
In Anatole France’s Penguin Island, Mael, a nearly blind abbot, reaches a distant island and mistakes penguins for people. His baptism sets an imaginary history in motion. Told as a mock chronicle, the novel follows this people through ancient times, the Middle Ages and a modern republic, turning the history of France and Europe into a sharp, strange joke.
The Chronicler keeps a straight face as saints, kings, generals and financiers crowd the stage. Kraken’s famous dragon tale mixes glory with swindle. Later, Pyrot, an army officer accused of stealing hay, faces an unjust case that divides the republic. Behind the laughter lies a darker question: how easily can fear and pride bend courts, churches, newspapers and crowds?
What you’ll discover
- An unlikely beginning Meet Mael, whose poor sight and holy purpose set the island’s strange history moving.
- Glory with a catch Follow Kraken’s dragon tale into a world where heroic fame and deception share ground.
- Saints, wars and bargains Enter medieval chapters crowded with relics, miracles, feuds, priests and nobles.
- A republic divided See the Pyrot affair expose the pressures that fear and pride place on justice.
- History with a grin Enjoy an ironic chronicle that asks whether civilization changes or repeats its old mistakes.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy sharp satire, mock history and comic tales about politics, religion and war will find plenty to smile at here, as will anyone drawn to French wit and clever storytelling.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A saint sails north and baptizes the wrong creatures
- Heaven argues over a baptism it cannot undo
- Clothes, property and taxes arrive together
- A fake dragon makes a fortune and a saint
- Dark ages bring royal scandals and borrowed relics
- Revolution and conquest end in glory without profit
- Monks, a handsome admiral and a plot to bring back the king
- A missing hay shipment sends an innocent man to a cage
- Marriage opens doors into political society
Who’s who
- OrberosiaThe first woman to wear clothes on the island, she plays dragon-tamer for profit and later becomes the nation's patron saint.
- KrakenA clever hunter who dresses as a dragon to terrorize his neighbors and forces them to pay him for ending the fear.
- AgaricA scheming monk who keeps trying to bring back the old royal line, whatever the cost to himself or his friends.
- CornemuseA wise and wealthy distiller monk who warns against every plot yet pays for each of them.
- GreataukA powerful general and Minister of War who builds a case against Pyrot out of nothing and defends it with cunning.
- ColombanA mild writer who stands up for an innocent man and is beaten, doused and hunted for it.
- Eveline CérèsA shrewd young woman who treats marriage as a ticket into society and then follows her heart into the government.
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- Large-print eBook
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- Audiobook
- 9 h 9 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 6 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Penguin Island in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Penguin Island
by Anatole France · 1908
A nearly blind saint baptizes a colony of penguins, and heaven must decide what to do with them.
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In short
A half-blind saint mistakes a crowd of penguins for people and baptizes every one of them. What does heaven do with baptized birds?
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A saint sails north and baptizes the wrong creatures
Maël is an abbot who finds a stone trough floating by the beach. He takes it as a call to preach. After years of missionary work, the Devil, disguised as the monk Samson, persuades him to add a mast and sail.
The borrowed rigging sends Maël racing through storms and icy seas, past sirens and icebergs, until he lands on a polar island. Tired and half blind, he sees rows of upright creatures with white bellies on the rocky ledges and takes them for a solemn assembly of simple people. He preaches the Gospel to them and, for three days, baptizes them one by one. They are penguins.
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What is Penguin Island about?
It is a mock history of an imaginary nation. A short-sighted saint baptizes penguins, heaven turns them into men, and the book follows their kings, church, wars, scandals and far future with a straight-faced, comic voice.
Is Penguin Island a true story?
No, it is an invented history that satirizes religion, politics and national pride.
Who is Pyrot in Penguin Island?
Pyrot is a Jewish army officer wrongly convicted of stealing eighty thousand bales of hay. He is held in a cage on a tower above the sea.
The author
Anatole France
1844–1924 · French novelist
Anatole France (1844–1924) was a French novelist, poet and essayist. He was born in Paris and died in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire, France. His novels include The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881), Thaïs (1890), The Red Lily (1894), Penguin Island (1908) and The Revolt of the Angels (1914).
More by Anatole France
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