Penguin Island, Anatole France [ready to read books TXT] 📗

Penguin Island

By Anatole France.

Translated by A. W. Evans.

Table of Contents Titlepage Imprint Preface Penguin Island Book I: The Beginnings I: Life of Saint Maël II: The Apostolical Vocation of Saint Maël III: The Temptation of Saint Maël IV: St. Maël’s Navigation on the Ocean of Ice V: The Baptism of the Penguins VI: An Assembly in Paradise VI: An Assembly in Paradise VIII: Metamorphosis of the Penguins Book II: The Ancient Times I: The First Clothes II: The First Clothes III: Setting Bounds to the Fields and the Origin of Property IV: The First Assembly of the Estates of Penguinia V: The Marriage of Kraken and Orberosia VI: The Dragon of Alca VII: The Dragon of Alca VIII: The Dragon of Alca IX: The Dragon of Alca X: The Dragon of Alca XI: The Dragon of Alca XII: The Dragon of Alca XII: The Dragon of Alca Book III: The Middle Ages and the Renaissance I: Brian the Good and Queen Glamorgan II: Draco the Great III: Queen Crucha IV: Letters V: The Arts Margaritone’s Vision VI: Marbodius The Descent of Marbodius Into Hell VII: Signs in the Moon Book IV: Trinco I: Mother Rouquin II: Trinco Account of the Travels of Young Djambi in Penguinia III: The Journey of Doctor Obnubile Book V: Chatillon I: The Reverend Fathers Agaric and Cornemuse II: Prince Crucho III: The Cabal IV: Viscountess Olive V: The Prince des Boscénos VI: The Emiral’s Fall VII: Conclusion Book VI: The Affair of the Eighty Thousand Trusses of Hay I: General Greatauk, Duke of Skull II: Pyrot III: Count de Maubec de la Dentdulynx IV: Colomban V: The Reverend Fathers Agaric and Cornemuse VI: The Seven Hundred Pyrotists VII: Bidault-Coquille and Maniflore, the Socialists VIII: The Colomban Trial IX: Father Douillard X: Mr. Justice Chaussepied XI: Conclusion Book VII: Madame Cérès I: Madame Clarence’s Drawing Room II: The Charity of St. Orberosia III: Hippolyte Cérès IV: A Politician’s Marriage V: The Visire Cabinet VI: The Sofa of the Favourite VII: The First Consequences VIII: Further Consequences IX: The Final Consequences The Zenith of Penguin Civilization Book VIII: Future Times § 1 § 2 § 3 § 4 Endnotes Colophon Uncopyright Imprint

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Preface

In spite of the apparent diversity of the amusements that seem to attract me, my life has but one object. It is wholly bent upon the accomplishment of one great scheme. I am writing the history of the Penguins. I labour sedulously at this task without allowing myself to be repelled by its frequent difficulties although at times these seem insuperable.

I have delved into the ground in order to discover the buried remains of that people. Men’s first books were stones, and I have studied the stones that can be regarded as the primitive annals of the Penguins. On the shore of the ocean I have ransacked a previously untouched tumulus, and in it I found, as usually happens, flint axes, bronze swords, Roman coins, and a twenty-sou piece bearing the effigy of Louis-Philippe I, King of the French.

For historical times, the chronicle of Johannes Talpa, a monk of the monastery of Beargarden, has been of great assistance to me. I steeped myself the more thoroughly in this author as no other source for the Penguin history of the Early Middle Ages has yet been discovered.

We are richer for the period that begins with the thirteenth century, richer but not better off. It is extremely difficult to write history. We do not know exactly how things have happened, and the historian’s embarrassment increases with the abundance of documents at his disposal. When a fact is known through the evidence of a single person, it is admitted without much hesitation. Our perplexities begin when events are related by two or by several witnesses, for their evidence is always contradictory and always irreconcilable.

It is true that the scientific reasons for preferring one piece of evidence to another are sometimes very strong, but they are never strong enough to outweigh our passions, our prejudices, our interests, or to overcome that levity of mind common to all grave men. It follows that we continually present the facts in a prejudiced or frivolous manner.

I have confided the difficulties that I experienced in writing the history of the Penguins to several learned archaeologists and palaeographers both of my own and foreign countries. I endured their contempt. They looked at me with a pitying smile which seemed to say: “Do we write history? Do you imagine that we attempt to extract the least parcel of life or truth from a text or a document? We