''Thaïs'' is a novel by French writer

Anatole France (; born , ; 16 April 1844 – 12 October 1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. He was a member of the Académie França ...

, published in 1890. It is based on events in the life of Saint Thaïs of Egypt, a legendary convert to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

who is said to have lived in the 4th century. It was the inspiration for the 1894 opera of the same name by Jules Massenet.

Summary

Paphnuce, an ascetic hermit of the Egyptian desert, journeys to Alexandria to find Thais, the libertine beauty whom he knew as a youth. Masquerading as a dandy, he is able to speak with her about eternity; surprisingly he succeeds in converting her to Christianity. Yet on their return to the desert he becomes fascinated with her former life. She enters a convent to repent of her sins. He cannot forget the pull of her famous beauty, and becomes confused about the values of life. Later, as she is dying and can only see heaven opening before her, he comes to her side and tells her that her faith is an illusion, and that he loves her.

Adaptations

The novel was adapted in 1917 for an American silent film, '' Thais''. In 1984 new adaptation took place for a Polish film '' Thais'' directed by Ryszard Ber.

David Frischmann David ben Saul Frischmann (, 31 December 1859 – 4 August 1922) was a Hebrew and Yiddish modernist writer, poet, and translator. He edited several important Hebrew periodicals, and wrote fiction, poetry, essays, feuilletons, literary criticism ...

adapted the novel into a short story in Hebrew, called "Ir Hamiklat" ("City of Shelter). He also translated the novel into Hebrew. The Indian writer

Munshi Premchand Dhanpat Rai Srivastava (31 July 1880 – 8 October 1936), better known by his pen name Premchand (), was an Indian writer famous for his modern Hindustani literature. Premchand was a pioneer of Hindi and Urdu social fiction. He was one of ...

adapted ''Thaïs'' as ''Ahankar'' in

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

Bhagwati Charan Verma Bhagwati Charan Verma (30 August 1903 – 5 October 1981) was a Hindi author. He wrote many novels, his best work was '' Chitralekha'' (1934), which was made into two successful Hindi films in 1941 and 1964 respectively. He was awarded Sa ...

's ''Chitralekha'' (1934) was also modelled on France's novel and was adapted to film in 1941 and

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

. The comic poet

Newman Levy Newman Levy (November 30, 1888 – March 22, 1966) was an American lawyer, poet, playwright and essayist. Levy followed his father, well-known criminal attorney Abraham Levy, into law, but also pursued his own dreams of being a writer. Born in Ma ...

reviewed and summarized the story in his poem "Wicked Alexandria" in response to seeing the Massenet opera. The poem was subsequently popularized as a comic song.

References

External links

''Thaïs''
available at

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...

''Thais'' By Anatole France, Urdu Translation
* 1890 French novels Novels by Anatole France French novels adapted into films Novels adapted into operas Novels set in Egypt Novels set in the 4th century Cultural depictions of Thaïs (saint) Novels adapted for other media {{1890s-hist-novel-stub