100 - [LITERATURE] - FRANCE Anatole

[LITERATURE] - FRANCE Anatole The Island of the Penguins Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1908 In-12°. Full black morocco bound by H. Bellevallée. Spine with 5 raised bands, author, title, and date in gold. Intermittent gold fillets on the edges. Lining decorated with a gold fillet and arabesques surrounding beige moiré. Beige moiré endpapers. Gilded edges. Original covers and spine preserved. Slipcase edged with the same morocco leather (some scuffs). First edition of this masterpiece of 20th-century social and political satire. Through a biting allegory in which the venerable, century-old Saint Maël mistakenly baptizes penguins, Anatole France (1844–1924) crafts a fierce, skeptical, and ironic parody of French history. In it, the author mocks founding myths, the excesses of nationalism, and the institutions of the Third Republic, and offers a memorable satirical reimagining of the Dreyfus Affair in the guise of the Chatillon Affair. References: Talvart and Place, *Bibliographie des auteurs modernes*, vol. VI, p. 182; Monod, *Manuel de l’amateur de livres du XIXe siècle*, no. 4935; Carteret, *Le Trésor du bibliophile*, vol. IV, p. 169. Provenance: from the Errera family library