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.
Franceâs 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 Scorceseâs âTaxi Driverâ and Lynne Ramsayâs âYou Were Never Really Hereâ.
A profound, moving, and award-winning tale, âThe Crime of Sylvestre Bonnardâ is a must-read for fans of France who wish to connect with the authorâs origins or anyone who wishes to take their first foray into his compelling body of work.
François-Anatole Thibault (1844 â 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 fatherâs 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 FĂ©nĂ©lon, Franceâs work has a strong preoccupation with scepticism and hedonism. He is best remembered for his classic French novels âLa RĂŽtisserie de la Reine PĂ©dauqueâ (1893) and âLe Crime de Sylvestre Bonnardâ (1881). Franceâs works have had a historic legacy, and he is recognised today as one of Franceâs most prominent authors.