PENGUIN ISLAND : (Translated from French to English)

New York, NY: The Modern Library, 1933. First Edition, First Thus . Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket. Text/Near New w/light soiling to pgs 59-64. 1933, English Modern Library Edition w/Introduction from H.R. Steeves. Green linen boards/VG; sound w/trace edge & surface rubs. DJ/None. Upper text dyed green. Trace brown spotting (acidic paper reaction) to leading & lower text blocks. PO label of George Monteverde Grunig to front cover verso & penned to fEP. Satirical novel from 1921 Nobel winner, French poet, journalist & novelist Anatole France (1844 - 1924). First published 1908; this 1933 English Edition. Story of a fictitious island in northern Europe inhabited by great auks. A critique & satire of what one perceives as the "truth" in history. A wayward, somewhat blind & deaf Christian missionary monk arrives on the island. Seeing the upright walking penguins as pre-Christian noble pagans, he baptizes them, creating chaos for the good Lord who had reserved the rite for humans only! God, after consultation with His heavenly advisors, decides to convert the baptized birds to humans, leaving just a few physical traces of their ornithological origins, and, give each a soul. The tale mirrors the history of France & Western Europe, from the Early Middle Ages to the modern era, when motor cars & projects from thriving high-tech have been destroyed by mass terrorist bombings ... so, from the rubble, it becomes a moment when Creation (or re-Creation) reinvents itself. 395 pgs, in 8 Books. I,The Beginnings; II, The Ancient Times; III, The Middle Ages & the Renaissance; IV, Modern Times: Trinco; V, Modern Times: Chatillon; VI, Modern Times; VII, Modern Times; and VIII, Future Times.