Thais | Anatole France | Absolutely Charming!

Thais | Anatole France | Holy Moly

books:

Thais

	Thais Anatole France University Of Chicago Press, 1976 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

In those days the hermits of the desert lived in huts on the banks of the Nile, where they lived abstemious lives, taking no food till after sunset, and eating nothing but bread with a little salt and hyssop.They lived in temperance and chastity; they wore a hair shirt and a hood, slept on the bare ground after long watching, prayed, sang psalms, and, in short, spent their days in works of penitence. As an atonement for original sin, they refused their body not only all pleasures and satisfactions, but even that care and attention which in this age are deemed indispensable. They believed that the diseases of our members purify our souls, and the flesh could put on no adornment more glorious than wounds and ulcers. It was a good and virtuous life. It was also fairly smelly. One day a desert hermit named Paphnutius was recalling the hours he had lived apart from God, and examining his sins one by one, that he might the better ponder on their enormity, he remembered that he had seen at the theatre at Alexandria a very beautiful actress named Thaïs. Repenting his bothood lust for her, he saw he countenance weeping, and resolved that the courtesan must necessarily be brought to salvation. It was a terrible mistake, and one that still haunts us all. THAÏS a dryly tongue-in cheek novel of spiritual enormity from Anatole France, winner of the Nobel Price for Literature

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Absolutely Charming!

I loved how characters are colorfully and lively portrayed. I can almost see their parallel today in the Coptic Church. Humor is mingled with philosphy in the character of Paphnutius, Paul the Simple is seen as a man with supernatural feats and his slowness of mind is taken for "sacred" in a praiseworthy sense. Palemon is so colorful and amusing in his prayers as he has unique relationships to lettuces and sweet peas and talks to them as a true monk is in full communion with nature. So hilarious!

Holy Moly

The other reviewers have spoken so eloquently and intelligently on the value of this book that I can do its genius no further justice.

Instead, I challenge myself to slip this quote into a casual conversation:

"The lily of thy virtues has flowered upon the dunghill of thy corruption."

(Let's bring this into idiomatic usage, you guys!)

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Somber satire

Anatole France is best known as a satirist, including such pointed goofiness as his "Penguin Island." This story lacks the overt humor of PI, but lacks none of its thrust.

The story itself is simple enough. Paphnutius, an ascetic hermit, lives a desert life of fasting, flagellation, and isolation in the name of his God of Love. He recalls the dissipations of his mundane life before donning the sack-cloth, most especially his dissipations with seductress Thaïs. In a twisted infatuation, he determines to become the pander who will deliver her body and spirit to the exclusive service of that god, "for her own good" of course. France's story allows Thaïs a relatively gentle passing from this plane. Paphnutius, however suffers the agonies in himself of all the contradiction that he imposed onto those around him, without ever discovering the source of his self-inflicted injury.

As with a dinner of many courses, France's writing delivers its substance in the main dishes but its piquancy in the little bits on the sides. He introduces a minor character to baffle the self-righteous Paphnutius, an anchorite who practices austerities like his own but not for a god like his own - a neat jab at religious extremists who can't understand that they don't have a monopoly on morality. He also introduces the effete philosopher who reads about morality, when no other entertainment presents itself. Then he offers us Thaïs herself. She beguiles men's minds on stage, and amasses a fortune of love-offerings in her harlotry. But she returns good value for value given, and those who have lost the most to her seem to think it a fair trade. France may not propose any clear code of upright behavior, but he's energetic in tweaking the bluenoses who claim to have all the answers.

Despite being a century old or more, this has a lot to say about today's religious loudmouths, the ones who live in the black-and-white world of obedience or opposition. France doesn't single them out, though. He also sees and describes lots of others, both the elevated and the debased. Without providing any clear answers or even clear questions, he offers an interesting and contrasting set of case studies. The interaction of those characters is their comparison, and France leaves any conclusion to the reader. Which, of course, is where it belongs.

//wiredweird

PS: I'm reviewing a different edition of this book than the ISBN on this page would indicate. This is a 1920s or 1930s volume from the "Illustrated Editions Company" with no attribution for the translator. It's a beautiful object, though, with rough-cut and un-cut pages, archaic illustration, and paper so thick and soft that it makes me think of flannel sheets. If I find a product listing for this specific edition, I'll move my review there.

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A good book

This is the first book I've ever read of Anatole France and I was expecting some sort of laugh out loud satire but this book is quite serious.

The basic plot of the story is as follows. It is set in the early centuries after the death of Christ, in Egypt. The hero is Phaphnutuis a fanatical ascetic monk living in a desert monastary, who pleasures himself by subjecting his person to as much bodily deprivaiton as possibly, which he thinks is pleasing to god. He gets a vision that tells him to go to Alexandria and Cairo to seek out the actress Thais, a lady of incomporable beauty and sensuality who lives a life of extreme luxury and gets favors from powerful men by fornicating with them. Phaphnutius with single minded zeal hopes to rescue Thais from this life of sin and bring her to Jesus.

In a way this story is one of awesome power, not just for the stretches of excellent writing it contains, but for the staggering tragedy of how Phaphnutius's life turns out, how he is overwhelmed by demons. But the story itself suffers I think, by how France's structures his dialogue. In the Dostoyevsky style, he has his characters talking to each other in the form of lengthy speeches. Unlike Dostoyevsky's dialogue, the prose of the dialogue in this book is in ornate style. However this prose is still beautiful. Nonetheless, these long speeches interrupt the power of the narration. This is particularly the case where about two thirds of the way through, France afflicts the reader with 15 or so pages of tedious rambling philosophical discourses from the mouths of the politicians and generals at the drunken party to which Phaphnutius accompanies Thais. There is a certain sloppiness in the narration in this part but following it, is the best writing of the book. This writing indeed is really first rate.

I get the feeling that the book could have been better if it had had more editing to it, but I really don't know anything.

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Touches on themes relevant to our times

Although written in 1890, Thais is quite topical in 2006 insofar as it uses irony to explore the hypocrisy inherent in religious zealotry. Paphnutius is the ascetic monk (who might also be described as ignorant, arrogant, and intolerant) who breaks his long desert hermitage to return to the city to "save" the courtesan, Thais, reputedly the most beautiful woman in the world, as well as a woman with a generous heart and, we ultimately learn, a pure spirit. Paphnutius's fanaticism is both a source of humor and censure, and it thinly veils his own sinfulness and false motives. Paphnutius is the most fully drawn character in the novel,the other characters are largely broad archetypes. Nevertheless, the exploration of the consequences of shutting oneself off from society, from new ideas and worldviews, even from oneself is powerful and relevant today.

Anatole France won the 1921 Nobel Prize for his body of work.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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