



Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at http://www.freeliterature.org
(Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.]





ANATOLE FRANCE

BY

GEORGE BRANDES


MEN OF CONTEMPORARY LETTERS SERIES


LONDON

WILLIAM HEINEMANN

MCMVIII


[Illustration: ANATOLE FRANCE--Bust by Lavergne]



The true author is recognisable by the existence on every page of his
works of at least one sentence or one phrase which none but he could
have written.

Take the following sentence: "If we may believe this amiable shepherd
of souls, it is impossible for us to elude divine mercy, and we shall
all enter Paradise--unless, indeed, there be no Paradise, which is
exceedingly probable." It treats of Renan. It must be written by a
disciple of Renan's, whose humour perhaps allows itself a little more
licence than the master's. More we cannot say.

But take this: "She was the widow of four husbands, a dreadful woman,
suspected of everything except of having loved--consequently honoured
and respected." There is only one man who can have written this. It
jestingly indicates the fact that society forgives woman everything
except a passion, and communicates this observation to the reader, as
it were with a gentle nudge.

Or take the following: "We should not love nature, for she is not
lovable; but neither should we hate her, for she is not deserving of
hatred. She is everything. It is very difficult to be everything. It
results in terrible heavy-handedness and awkwardness."

There is only one man who would excuse Nature for her indifference to
us human beings in these words: "It is very difficult to be everything