Anatole France spares no one in this satire about the birth, life and death of the Penguin empire. Starting from the baptism of the Penguins by St. Mael (and the associated debates in Heaven about the divine status of penguins) .

Beneath the shadow of St. Sulpice the ancient mansion of the d'Esparvieu family rears its austere three stories between a moss-grown fore-court and a garden hemmed in,

Anatole France, the Nobel-prize winning French author, turns to a historical subject for this two-volume Life of Joan of Arc. Thoroughly researched with a wealth of references, he sought to bring a rationalist viewpoint to the legendary French heroine and to examine and, where necessary, overturn the superstitious additions...

This novel was an autobiographical tale in which the hero, Monsieur Bergeret, a thoughtful man of letters who had formerly held himself aloof from political strife, was drawn onto the public stage because of the Dreyfus Affair, just as Anatole France had been.

Sylvestre Bonnard, a member of the Institute, is a historian and philologist, gifted with great erudition.