''The Revolt of the Angels'' () is a 1914 novel by

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 ...

Plot

''Revolt'' retells the classic Christian story of the

war in heaven In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, the Book of Revelation describes a future war in heaven between angels led by the Archangel Michael against those led by "the dragon", identified as the devil or Satan, who will be defeated and throw ...

between

angels In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles incl ...

led by the

Archangel Michael Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...

against others led by Satan. The war ends with the defeat and casting to the earth of the latter. The plot emphasises themes of protagonists fighting a ruling hierarchy, and attempting to escape it, as well as "hiddenness, delusion, revolution, and epiphany...a literary exploration of existential choices in an apocalyptic context". It is written, says René Boylesve, with a "deft levity". Mutual antagonism between God and his angels is emphasised, which leads to disgruntlement and ultimately rebellion by the latter. It tells the story of Arcade, the guardian angel of Maurice d'Esparvieu. Bored because Bishop d'Esparvieu is sinless, Arcade begins reading the bishop's books on theology and becomes an atheist. He moves to Paris, meets a woman, falls in love, and loses his virginity causing his wings to fall off, joins the revolutionary movement of fallen angels, and meets the Devil, who realizes that if he overthrew God, he would become just like God. Arcade realizes that replacing God with another is meaningless unless "in ourselves and in ourselves alone we attack and destroy

Ialdabaoth Yaldabaoth, Jaldabaoth, or Ildabaoth is an evil deity and creator of the material world in various Gnostic sects and movements, sometimes represented as a theriomorphic, lion-headed serpent. He is identified as the Demiurge and false god who ke ...

." "Ialdabaoth", according to France, is God's secret name and means "the child who wanders".

Political influences

France's political leanings—he was a

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

—heavily influenced ''Revolt'', leading the theme that successful revolutions must always create greater tyrannies than those they overthrew. The bitterness created by the revolt is reflected in the "biting and harsh" descriptions. Joe Loewenberg has described it as an "imaginative narrative...the ripest expression of Anatole France's urbane genius, einga masterpiece of criticism at once ironic and irenic".

Literary references

Essayist David Fuchs argues that much of

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...

's early work suggests that he was probably aware of the book, even if he had not read it.

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...

references "Revolt of the Angels" in his early story ''Dancing with a Ghost''. Fitzgerald also uses the book as a

prop A prop, formally known as (theatrical) property, is an object used on stage or screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinc ...

in his story " The Offshore Pirate"; the character Ardita is reading ''Revolt'', herself looking, says Griffin, "conically angelic...reading a book about angels ". Fitzgerald draws attention to ''Revolt'' five times in the story; he argues that France's work is the more romantic of the two. ''Revolt'' has been compared with the work of

George Santayana Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known in English as George Santayana (; December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952), was a Spanish and US-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Born in Spain, Santayana was raised ...

in its suggestion that religion is set back by its successes.Ratner, Joseph. "George Santayana's Theory of Religion". The Journal of Religion, vol. 3, no. 5, 1923, pp. 458–475, 472

Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical ref ...

mentions ''Revolt of the Angels'' in his novel

Tropic of Capricorn The Tropic of Capricorn (or the Southern Tropic) is the circle of latitude that contains the subsolar point at the December (or southern) solstice. It is thus the southernmost latitude where the Sun can be seen directly overhead. It also reac ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Revolt of the Angels, The 1914 French novels Angel novels Novels by Anatole France War in Heaven