Sylvestre Bonnard, an esteemed ageing scholar of history and philology, finds himself on a trans-European adventure to track down an important manuscript. Whilst on his travels he meets the granddaughter of his lost love, a young woman named Jeanne. Impassioned to rescue her from the abusive life she is stuck in, Bonnard is forced to commit a crime of love to protect Jeanne.
Franceโs tender exploration of the relationship between male rescuers and damsels-in-distress is interesting, and acts as a precursor to some of the more explosive films to explore this theme such as Martin Scorceseโs โTaxi Driverโ and Lynne Ramsayโs โYou Were Never Really Hereโ.
A profound, moving, and award-winning tale, โThe Crime of Sylvestre Bonnardโ is a must-read for fans of France who wish to connect with the authorโs origins or anyone who wishes to take their first foray into his compelling body of work.
Franรงois-Anatole Thibault (1844 โ 1924), better known as Anatole France, was a French journalist, poet, novelist, and Nobel laureate for literature. Spending much of his early life in his fatherโs bookshop, France quickly rose to prominence as a respected author of over 25 works. A French Classicist writer with a style reminiscent of Voltaire and Fรฉnรฉlon, Franceโs work has a strong preoccupation with scepticism and hedonism. He is best remembered for his classic French novels โLa Rรดtisserie de la Reine Pรฉdauqueโ (1893) and โLe Crime de Sylvestre Bonnardโ (1881). Franceโs works have had a historic legacy, and he is recognised today as one of Franceโs most prominent authors.