“I do not believe that Thorfin Karlsefne was more astonished and delighted when he discovered America than I was when, in my sixtieth year, this great literary luminary sailed into my ken. … I have three good reasons for writing about Anatole France. I want to help the British people to enjoy his work; I want them to accord to the great Frenchman the full justice which I feel he has not yet received in this country; and I want to ease my soul by some expression of my own gratitude and admiration. … Of all the famous or popular men alive upon this planet Anatole France is to me the greatest. There is no writer to compare to him, and he has few peers amongst the greatest geniuses of past ages and all climes. … ‘Penguin Island’ is a masterpiece and a classic. It is, in my opinion, a greater work than ‘Gargantua’ or ‘Don Quixote’ or ‘Sartor Resartus’ or ‘Tristram Shandy.’ … The laughing, mocking, learned and dissolute Abbé Coignard is one of the greatest creations of human genius. If it will not sound too audacious I will venture to claim that there is no character in Rabelais, Cervantes, Dickens, or Sterne to equal the Abbé Coignard, and, with the exception of the miraculous Hamlet, there is nothing greater in Shakespeare. These be ‘brave words.’ I am writing of one of the world’s greatest artists and humorists: of Anatole France, the Master. … Then there is the great scene of the banquet in the house of Monsieur de la Geritande, which I have read fifty times, and hope to read a hundred times again. The whole chapter is one of the most artistic, humorous, human, and exhilarating achievements in literature. It is alive; it is real; it goes like a song. There is nothing finer or stronger in the best comedy work of Shakespeare. … Anatole France is a great man, and there is no living celebrity for whom I have so much reverence and regard.”—ROBERT BLATCHFORD in the _Sunday Chronicle_. [N]THE RED LILY A TRANSLATION BY WINIFRED STEPHENS MOTHER OF PEARL A TRANSLATION BY FREDERIC CHAPMAN THE GARDEN OF EPICURUS A TRANSLATION BY ALFRED ALLINSON [N]THE CRIME OF SYLVESTRE BONNARD A TRANSLATION BY LAFCADIO HEARN THE WELL OF ST. CLARE A TRANSLATION BY ALFRED ALLINSON BALTHASAR A TRANSLATION BY MRS. JOHN LAMB [N]THAIS A TRANSLATION BY ROBERT BRUCE DOUGLAS THE WHITE STONE A TRANSLATION BY C. E. ROCHE [N]PENGUIN ISLAND A TRANSLATION BY A. W. EVANS THE MERRIE TALES OF JACQUES TOURNEBROCHE. A TRANSLATION BY ALFRED ALLINSON THE ELM TREE OF THE MALL A TRANSLATION BY M. P. WILLCOCKS THE WICKER-WORK WOMAN A TRANSLATION BY M. P. WILLCOCKS ON LIFE AND LETTERS. 2 Vols. First and Second Series. A TRANSLATION BY A. W. EVANS AT THE SIGN OF THE REINE PEDAUQUE A TRANSLATION BY MRS WILFRID JACKSON THE ASPIRATIONS OF JEAN SERVIEN A TRANSLATION BY ALFRED ALLINSON JOCASTA AND THE FAMISHED CAT A TRANSLATION BY MRS. FARLEY