In those days the hermits of the desert lived in huts on the banks of the Nile, where they lived abstemious lives, taking no food till after sunset, and eating nothing but bread with a little salt and hyssop.They lived in temperance and chastity; they wore a hair shirt and a hood, slept on the bare ground after long watching, prayed, sang psalms, and, in short, spent their days in works of penitence. As an atonement for original sin, they refused their body not only all pleasures and satisfactions, but even that care and attention which in this age are deemed indispensable. They believed that the diseases of our members purify our souls, and the flesh could put on no adornment more glorious than wounds and ulcers. It was a good and virtuous life. It was also fairly smelly. One day a desert hermit named Paphnutius was recalling the hours he had lived apart from God, and examining his sins one by one, that he might the better ponder on their enormity, he remembered that he had seen at the theatre at Alexandria a very beautiful actress named Thaïs. Repenting his bothood lust for her, he saw he countenance weeping, and resolved that the courtesan must necessarily be brought to salvation. It was a terrible mistake, and one that still haunts us all. THAÏS a dryly tongue-in cheek novel of spiritual enormity from Anatole France, winner of the Nobel Price for Literature
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Holy Moly:
The other reviewers have spoken so eloquently and intelligently on the value of this book that I can do its genius no further justice. Instead, I challenge myself to slip this quote into a casual conversation: "The lily of thy virtues has flowered upon the dunghill of thy corruption." (Let's bring this into idiomatic usage, you guys!)
Somber satire:
Anatole France is best known as a satirist, including such pointed goofiness as his "Penguin Island." This story lacks the overt humor of PI, but lacks none of its thrust. The story itself is simple enough. Paphnutius, an ascetic hermit, lives a desert life of fasting, flagellation, and isolation in the name of his God of Love. He recalls the dissipations of his mundane life before donning the sack-cloth, most especially his dissipations with seductress Thaïs. In a twisted infatuation, he... more info
A good book:
This is the first book I've ever read of Anatole France and I was expecting some sort of laugh out loud satire but this book is quite serious. The basic plot of the story is as follows. It is set in the early centuries after the death of Christ, in Egypt. The hero is Phaphnutuis a fanatical ascetic monk living in a desert monastary, who pleasures himself by subjecting his person to as much bodily deprivaiton as possibly, which he thinks is pleasing to god. He gets a vision that tells him to go to... more info
Touches on themes relevant to our times:
Although written in 1890, Thais is quite topical in 2006 insofar as it uses irony to explore the hypocrisy inherent in religious zealotry. Paphnutius is the ascetic monk (who might also be described as ignorant, arrogant, and intolerant) who breaks his long desert hermitage to return to the city to "save" the courtesan, Thais, reputedly the most beautiful woman in the world, as well as a woman with a generous heart and, we ultimately learn, a pure spirit. Paphnutius's fanaticism is both a source of humor... more info
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