Penguin Island - by Anatole France (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Penguin Island (original French title: L'Île des Pingouins) is a social and political satire that uses the fictional story of a society of penguins transformed into humans by a confused monk, who mistakenly baptizes them.

The novel critiques various aspects of human society, such as religion, politics, and history, by exploring the development of Penguinia, a fictional civilization. France uses the penguins as a metaphor for human folly, examining how their society evolves from its primitive beginnings to a complex, modern state, mirroring the rise and fall of civilizations throughout history.

Anatole France (François-Anatole Thibault, 1844-1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist, a member of the Academie Francais, and winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. Known for his irony, France claimed to be "writing the history of the Penguins. I labor sedulously at this task without allowing myself to be repelled by its frequent difficulties although at times these seem insuperable."