Anatole France spent his childhood around his father's bookstore in France. As an adult he became a librarian and author. France received a prize from the French Academy for his novel The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881). In 1901, France wrote about the Dreyfus affair in Monsieur Bergeret. In 1908, he published Penguin Island, a humorous satire about penguins changed into humans after being baptized in error by the nearsighted Abbot Mael. The Aspirations of Jean Servien was translated into English in 1912. Jean Servien was a young man of 18. This story tells of his longings and dreams. He was educated above his station and his reading is of a desultory sort. The Aspirations of Jean Servien is partly autobiographical.