Subject
Penguins -- Fiction Books
Best books
Anatole France
Penguin Island
"Penguin Island" by Anatole France is a satirical novel published in 1908. When a nearly blind monk mistakes great auks for humans and baptizes them, Heaven must resolve the dilemma by transforming the birds into people. What follows is a sweeping fictional history of Penguinia that mirrors France and Western Europe, spanning from the Dark Ages through modernity and beyond. France lampoons the Dreyfus affair, the origins of religion, property, and law, and human nature itself in this biting commentary on civilization's follies.
Anatole France
L'Île Des Pingouins
"L'Île des Pingouins" by Anatole France is a historical novel published in 1908. When a near-sighted saint accidentally baptizes penguins instead of humans, God transforms them into people, creating a new civilization. France chronicles their entire history—from ancient times through the future—as a satirical mirror of French history itself. The narrative includes a pointed allegory of the Dreyfus Affair and skewers religious hypocrisy, political corruption, and social follies. This darkly comic tale presents human civilization as an endless cycle of ambition, destruction, and regression.
Recently surfaced classics