orig. Jacques-Anatole-François Thibault
born April 16, 1844, Paris, France
died Oct. 12, 1924, Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire
French novelist and critic.
France's characteristically ironic and urbane skepticism appeared in his early novels, including Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard (1881) and At the Sign of the Reine Pédauque (1893). Later he introduced both bitter satire and humanitarian concerns into many works, such as the tetralogy L'Histoire Contemporaine (18971901), whose final volume, Monsieur Bergeret in Paris (1901), reflects his support for Alfred Dreyfus . The comedy Crainquebille (1903) proclaims the hostility toward the bourgeois order that led him to embrace socialism, and he was ultimately drawn to communism. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1921.