Histoire contemporaine

Having reached maturity, and acclaimed after the success of Thaïs and La Rotisserie de la Reine Pédauque, Anatole France sought to renew his manner. He set aside the manuscript of his Vie de Jeanne d’Arc and, while leading a worldly existence, “conceived a series of novels of a new kind.” L’Orme du mail, followed by Le Mannequin d’osier, L’Anneau d’améthyste and Monsieur Bergeret à Paris, would form the series known as his Histoire contemporaine, “a broad tableau, of powerful realism.”

A single central subject forms the crucible of these studies of manners and society: the appointment of a bishop in a provincial town. When Anatole France visited Capian, the property of Arman and Léontine de Caillavet, he is thought to have recorded the confidences of the village priest concerning the maneuverings surrounding the vacant bishopric.

The first in the Histoire contemporaine series, L’Orme du mail, promised a bright future and was praised by critics; Faguet wrote: “M. France has written his first realist novel, and it is very good. At last!…”

A fine set in uniform binding by Semet & Plumelle.