Abstract

[Historical transfiguration and utopian exemplarity in L’Ile des Pingouins (1908) by Anatole France] L’Ile des Pingouins is a singular diachronic utopia, created by the syncretic genius of Anatole France. A portrait of human nature, the novel illustrates the many adventures of the inhabitants of Pingouinie, from the medieval origins to the present day. Mistaken for men, and by mistake baptised by an almost blind monk, the penguins are transformed into men by divine decision to make up for the fatal error and to return the placid birds to the order of Creation. But once endowed with a soul and transformed into men, the penguins become aware of good and evil. The penguin society thus becomes a mirror of the vices and virtues of human society at all times: a compelling and irreverent portrait of a ‘never-ending story’.