The Queen Pedauque

The Queen Pedauque

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Queen Pedauque, by Anatole
France #10 in our series by Anatole France
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Title: The Queen Pedauque
Author: Anatole France
Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6571] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on December 28,
2002]
Edition: 10

Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
QUEEN PEDAUQUE ***

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THE QUEEN PEDAUQUE
ANATOLE FRANCE
Translated by JOS. A. V. STRITZKO
Introduction by JAMES BRANCH CABELL

I. Why I recount the singular Occurrences of my Life
II. My Home at the Queen Pedauque Cookshop--I turn the Spit and
learn to read--Entry of Abbe Jerome Coignard
III. The Story of the Abbe's Life
IV. The Pupil of M. Jerome Coignard--I receive Lessons in Latin,
Greek and Life
V. My Nineteenth Birthday--Its Celebration and the Entrance of M.
d'Asterac
VI. Arrival at the Castle of M. d'Asterac and Interview with the
Cabalist
VII. Dinner and Thoughts on Food
VIII. The Library and its Contents
IX. At Work on Zosimus the Panopolitan--I visit my Home and hear
Gossip about M. d'Asterac
X. I see Catherine with Friar Ange and reflect--The Liking of Nymphs
for Satyrs--An Alarm of Fire--M. d'Asterac in his Laboratory
XI. The Advent of Spring and its Effects--We visit Mosaide
XII. I take a Walk and meet Mademoiselle Catherine
XIII. Taken by M. d'Asterac to the Isle of Swans I listen to his
Discourse on Creation and Salamanders
XIV. Visit to Mademoiselle Catherine--The Row in the Street and my

Dismissal
XV. In the Library with M. Jerome Coignard--A Conversation on
Morals--Taken to M. d'Asterac's Study-Salamanders again-- The Solar
Powder--A Visit and its Consequences
XVI. Jahel comes to my Room--What the Abbe saw on the Stairs--His
Encounter with Mosaide
XVII. Outside Mademoiselle Catherine's House--We are invited in by
M. d'Anquetil--The Supper--The Visit of the Owner and the horrible
Consequences
XVIII. Our return--We smuggle M. d'Anquetil in--M. d'Asterac on
Jealousy--M. Jerome Coignard in Trouble-What happened while I was
in the Laboratory--Jahel persuaded to elope
XIX. Our last Dinner at M. d'Asterac's Table--Conversation of M.
Jerome Coignard and M. d'Asterac--A Message from Home--Catherine
in the Spittel--We are wanted for Murder-Our Flight--Jahel causes me
much Misery--Account of the Journey-The Abbe Coignard on
Towns--Jahel's Midnight Visit--We are followed--The Accident --M.
Jerome Coignard is stabbed
XX. Illness of M. Jerome Coignard
XXI. Death of M. Jerome Coignard
XXII. Funeral and Epitaph
XXIII. Farewell to Jahel--Dispersal of the Party.
XXIV. I am pardoned and return to Paris--Again at the Queen
Pedauque--I go as Assistant to M. Blaizot--Burning of the Castle of
Sablons--Death of Mosaide and of M. d'Asterac.
XXV. I become a Bookseller--I have many learned and witty
Customers but none to equal the Abbe Jerome Coignard, D.D., M. A

INTRODUCTION
What one first notes about The Queen Pedauque is the fact that in this
ironic and subtle book is presented a story which, curiously enough, is
remarkable for its entire innocence of subtlety and irony. Abridge the
"plot" into a synopsis, and you will find your digest to be what is
manifestly the outline of a straightforward, plumed romance by the
elder Dumas.
Indeed, Dumas would have handled the "strange surprising adventures"
of Jacques Tournebroche to a nicety, if only Dumas had ever thought to

have his collaborators write this brisk tale, wherein d'Astarac and
Tournebroche and Mosaide display, even now, a noticeable something
in common with the Balsamo and Gilbert and Althotas of the
_Memoires d'un Medecin_. One foresees, to be sure, that, with the
twin-girthed Creole for guide, M. Jerome Coignard would have
waddled into immortality not quite as we know him, but with
somewhat more of a fraternal resemblance to the Dom Gorenflot of _La
Dame de Monsoreau;_ and that the blood of the abbe's death-wound
could never have bedewed the book's final pages, in the teeth