Techniques of Irony in Anatole France: Essay on Les Sept Femmes de la Barbe-Bleue

Through her close reading, Diane Wolfe Levy reveals the complex irony in France’s last volume of short stories Les sept femme de la Barbe-Bleue. The author shows how France imbues his narration with paradoxical elements, contrasts full of irony, and complex oppositions. She also reveals the way irony is directed to both the narrator and the fictional characters. This contradictory nature reveals the lack of objectivity that the prevalent scientific method is supposed to have. Levy exemplifies the irony in its multiplicity, connecting it to the author, the reader, the narrator, and the subject of the tales.