
Penguin Island
'Penguin Island' Summary
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.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
FrenchPublished In
1908Authors

Anatole France
France
Anatole France was a French poet, journalist, and 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 Acad&ea...
Books by Anatole FranceDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books

Camping in the Canadian Rockies by Walter Dwight Wilcox
This book, written by Walter Dwight Wilcox, offers a firsthand account of his camping experiences in the rugged and beautiful Canadian Rocky Mountains...

Niagara by John Campbell
'Niagara' by John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, offers a personal and insightful account of the author's travels to Niagara Falls in the 19th century....

Frankenstein (El Moderno Prometeo) by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Frankenstein es una novela gótica que explora las consecuencias éticas de la ambición científica y la naturaleza de la creación. El científico Víctor...

Steppe by Anton Chekhov
Set in the vast and evocative Russian steppe, Anton Chekhov's 'Steppe' follows the journey of young Yegorushka as he embarks on his first trip to scho...

Morning Dawn by Rev. Leonard Wilson Arnold Luckey
The Morning Dawn is a comprehensive poem that describes the scenic beauty of Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park, located in Maine. The poem...

Poème du Mois - 001 Chanson d'autommne by Paul-Marie Verlaine
This book presents a single poem, "Chanson d'automne" by Paul Verlaine, a well-known piece of French Symbolist poetry. The poem explores themes of aut...

Pit-tah, de Grijze Wolf by Jack London
Pit-tah, de Grijze Wolf, volgt het leven van een wolfshond, Pit-tah, vanaf zijn geboorte. Het verhaal is verteld vanuit het perspectief van de hond, w...

The Forest Lovers by Maurice Henry Hewlett
The story revolves around a young knight, Richard Lanfranc, who falls in love with a mysterious forest-dwelling woman named Alisande. The Forest Lover...

pazos de Ulloa by Emilia Pardo Bazán
Los Pazos de Ulloa is a Spanish novel by Emilia Pardo Bazán, set in the rural Galicia of the 19th century. It tells the story of Nuño, a young man of...

Cañas y barro by Vicente Blasco Ibanez
Cañas y Barro is a novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, set in the picturesque region of La Albufera, a lagoon near Valencia, Spain. It follows the lives o...
Reviews for Penguin Island
No reviews posted or approved, yet...