Death of One of the Greatest of French Writers The news of the death of M.
'Anatole France which has reached' proclaims the loss of e's greatest writer of modern times. Surviving his two contemporaries Pierre Loti and Maurice /Barreés, who passed away in 1923, the leaves a name which remains outstanding among the great makers of French Literature and comparable with those of Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo and Renan.
Anatole France, whose real name was Jacque Anatole Thébault,' was born in Paris on April 16, 1844, His father was a bookseller whose establishment is described by the Goncourt brothers as one of the last Jof the old type of book shop to Jwhich men came not merely to order and to buy, but to discuss, turn over pages and. dip into the books Jwhich he sold, Hence the early days lof this great genius were essentially "bookish" and it was in a congenial atmosphere that he spent his earl His first work, which appeared in 1868, was a study of Alfred de Vigny, followed in 1873 by 2 volume Jef poems called Les Poémes dores dedicated to Lecohte de Lisle, probably the outcome of the Parnassian movement. Another volume of poems followed in 1876, known Les Noces Corinthiennes. The poems of these volumes, though unmistakably the work of a man of literary skill and cultured taste, were searcely to be the true outcome of his expression. It is only natural, therefore, that he should have turned to prose works and of these his earliest novel was Lo Crime favourite. The poraire, consisting of four volumes, expresses dramatically through the voice of the Abbé and M. Bergeret own opinions on' modern problems. Lo Livre de won Ami is generally accepted as partly an autobiography. Also worthy of are his" more distinctly fan-tactical "works, auch as Balthasar, the story of one of the Magi, Thais, the: tory of an actress and Jourtesan of. Alexandria, whom a hermit converts, but with the Toss of his own soul." More recent works Hncude' he anttclvical "Vie He des Penguins. neg Jeanne dave and his pungent eat
OF his tyle the beau lucency is the result of many 4 tiesfelicty, gence. and. the' hats monious grouping of words in per-feet measure. Ie expresses avowed preference forthe simple Father than the artistic style. "In Jardin aBpicnre (1894) he writes: A simple style fs Uke white light Tis complet, but not to outward Jsceming. In language a beautiful and desirable simplicity is but an appearance, and results only from the order and sovereign economy of the various parts of speech.'
In his philosophy he is a sceptic, doubting in religion,—metaphysics, polities. and science. Nor is he without doubts as to his own negative conclusions.
As a critic he is graceful and appredative, not without an academic touch in the best sense of that word. He found a place in the French Academy, taking the seat vacated by Lesseps and was received into this august body on December 24, 1896.
away at 80 years of age, Anatole France stands one of the beacons of the best and purest traditions of French Literature,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.