Revolt of the Angels

When Arcade, a guardian angel assigned to protect a wealthy French aristocrat, discovers his charge's vast library of theological texts, he begins to read. And reading, as it turns out, is the most dangerous form of rebellion. The more Arcade consumes, the more his celestial certainty crumbles until he falls from grace not through sin, but through the audacious act of thinking for himself. Now expelled from heaven, Arcade recruits other fallen angels and marshals them for an apocalyptic revolt against the divine order. But Anatole France, that sly and sophisticated satirist, has no intention of offering a straightforward tale of cosmic warfare. Instead, he uses this extraordinary premise to hold a mirror to human nature and ask: if the rebels succeed, what actually changes? Will tyranny yield to freedom, or simply trade one master for another? Wickedly intelligent, mischievously irreverent, and surprisingly funny, this 1912 allegory remains a delicious provocation for anyone who has ever questioned authority, religious or otherwise.