Anatole sees himself as a dignified, brilliant, and much underappreciated magician/physician/scientist. How much of that is true, and how much is self-delusion and boastfulness?
I liked Anatole, but it was hard to take him too seriously. However, his heart was always in the right place. His bumbling and his missteps were often comical; his hairlessness and his inability to sweat were the result of some of his experiments. Anatole was a good and loyal friend; he meant well.
Anatole was a likable narrator because of his faults. He is the hero of his own story. I did love the idea of this unassuming little man slipping through history.
I liked Anatole and his frequent missteps that made this reader smile now and again. With all his bumbling, he managed to make things happen. He was a good friend to Tuilla offering the love that her father did not.
I think like all people Anatole has anxieties about being good enough. He was but he felt so responsible for a lot of things he couldn’t believe he was.