The novel is a satire on human nature. These penguins are mistaken for humans by the 97-year-old priest, Father Mael, because of his bad eyesight. He baptizes them, and once baptized, they have no choice but to become human. They take on human traits (build civilizations, go to war, etc.). The book is very funny and powerful.
By : Anatole France (1844 - 1924)
Anatole France was a French poet, journalist, and novelist. He was born in Paris, and died in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire. He was a successful novelist, with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. He was a member of the Académie française, and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of his literary achievements.
01 - Bk1 Ch1 - Life of Saint Mael
02 - Bk1 Ch2 - The Apostolical Vocation of Saint Mael
03 - Bk1 Ch3 - The Temptation of Saint Mael
04 - Bk1 Ch4 - Saint Mael's Navigation on the Ocean of Ice
05 - Bk1 Ch5 - The Baptism of the Penguins
06 - Bk1 Ch6 - An Assembly in Paradise
07 - Bk1 Ch7 - An Assembly in Paradise (Continuation and End)
08 - Bk1 Ch8 - Metamorphosis of the Penguins
09 - Bk2 Ch1 - The First Clothes
10 - Bk2 Ch2 - The First Clothes (Continuation and End)
11 - Bk2 Ch3 - Setting Bounds to the Fields and the Origin of Property
12 - Bk2 Ch4 - The First Assembly of the Estates of Penguinia
13 - Bk2 Ch5 - The Marriage of Kraken and Orberosia
14 - Bk2 Ch6 - The Dragon of Alca
15 - Bk2 Ch7 - The Dragon of Alca (Continuation)
16 - Bk2 Ch8 - The Dragon of Alca (Continuation)
17 - Bk2 Ch9 - The Dragon of Alca (Continuation)
18 - Bk2 Ch10 - The Dragon of Alca (Continuation)
19 - Bk2 Ch11 - The Dragon of Alca (Continuation)
20 - Bk2 Ch12 - The Dragon of Alca (Continuation)
21 - Bk2 Ch13 - The Dragon of Alca (Continuation and End)
22 - Bk3 Ch1 - Brian the Good and Queen Glamorgan
23 - Bk3 Ch2 - Draco the Great (Translation of the the Relics of St. Orberosia)
24 - Bk3 Ch3 - Queen Crucha
25 - Bk3 Ch4 - Letters: Johannes Talpa
26 - Bk3 Ch5 - The Primitives of Penguin Painting
27 - Bk3 Ch6 - Marbodius
28 - Bk3 Ch7 - Signs in the Moon
29 - Bk4 Ch1 - Modern Times: Trinco
30 - Bk4 Ch2 - Trinco
31 - Bk4 Ch3 - The Journey of Doctor Obnubile
32 - Bk5 Ch1 - The Reverend Fathers Agaric and Cornemuse
33 - Bk5 Ch2 - Prince Crucho
34 - Bk5 Ch3 - The Cabal
35 - Bk5 Ch4 - Viscountess Olive
36 - Bk5 Ch5 - The Prince des Boscenos
37 - Bk5 Ch6 - The Emiral's Fall
38 - Bk5 Ch7 - Conclusion
39 - Bk6 Ch1 - General Greatauk, Duke of Skull
40 - Bk6 Ch2 - Pyrot
41 - Bk6 Ch3 - Count de Maubec de la Dentulynx
42 - Bk6 Ch4 - Columban
43 - Bk6 Ch5 - The Reverand Fathers Agaric and Cornemuse
44 - Bk6 Ch6 - The Seven Hundred Pyrotists
45 - Bk6 Ch7 - Bidault-Coquille and Maniflore, The Socialists
46 - Bk6 Ch8 - The Columban Trial
47 - Bk6 Ch9 - Father Douillard
48 - Bk6 Ch10 - Mr. Justice Chaussepied
49 - Bk6 Ch11 - Conclusion
50 - Bk7 Ch1 - Madame Clarence's Drawing Room
51 - Bk7 Ch2 - The Charity of Saint Orberosia
52 - Bk7 Ch3 - Hippolyte Ceres
53 - Bk7 Ch4 - A Politician's Marriage
54 - Bk7 Ch5 - The Visire Cabinet
55 - Bk7 Ch6 - The Sofa of the Favourite
56 - Bk7 Ch7 - The First Consequences
57 - Bk7 Ch8 - Further Consequences
58 - Bk7 Ch9 - The Final Consequences
59 - Bk8 - The Endless History and Section One
60 - Bk8 - Section 2
61 - Bk8 - Section 3
62 - Bk8 - Section 4
Penguin Island is written in the style of a sprawling 18th- and 19th-century history book, concerned with grand metanarratives, mythologizing heroes, hagiography and romantic nationalism. It is about a fictitious island, inhabited by great auks, that existed off the northern coast of Europe. The history begins when a wayward Christian missionary monk lands on the island and perceives the upright, unafraid auks as a sort of pre-Christian society of noble pagans. Mostly blind from reflections from the polar ice and somewhat deaf from the roar of the sea, having mistaken the animals for humans, he baptizes them. This causes a problem for The Lord, who normally only allows humans to be baptized. After consulting with saints and theologians in Heaven, He resolves the dilemma by converting the baptized birds to humans with only a few physical traces of their ornithological origin, and giving them each a soul.
Thus begins the history of Penguinia, and from there forward the history mirrors that of France (and more generally of Western Europe, including German-speaking areas and the British Isles). The narrative spans from the Migration Period ("Dark Ages"), when the Germanic tribes fought incessantly among themselves for territory; to the heroic Early Middle Ages with the rise of Charlemagne ("Draco the Great") and conflicts with Viking raiders ("porpoises"); through the Renaissance (Erasmus); and up to the modern era with motor cars; and even into a future time in which a thriving high-tech civilization is destroyed by a campaign of terrorist bombings, and everything begins again in an endless cycle.
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