Diotimos Library · Literary Fiction Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Gods Are Athirst
Les Dieux ont soif · Complete French–English bilingual edition
Explore the LexiconSwipe or use the arrow keys.
French Page · Branch 104 of 120
Chapter XXVIII · Paragraphs 14–16
Edition pages
Printed pages in the supplied Diotimos 2026 bilingual edition.
- French
- Diotimos 2026 pp. 472, 474
- English
- Diotimos 2026 pp. 473, 475
French
"Je meurs justement, pensa-t-il. Il est juste que nous recevions ces outrages jetés à la République et dont nous aurions dû la défendre. Nous avons été faibles; nous nous sommes rendus coupables d’indulgence. Nous avons trahi la République. Nous avons mérité notre sort. Robespierre lui-même, le pur, le saint, a péché par douceur, par mansuétude; ses fautes sont effacées par son martyre. A son exemple, j’ai trahi la République; elle périt: il est juste que je meure avec elle. J’ai épargné le sang: que mon sang coule! Que je périsse! je l’ai mérité...."
Tandis qu’il songeait ainsi, il aperçut l’enseigne de l'Amour peintre, et des torrents d’amertume et de douceur roulèrent en tumulte dans son cœur.
Le magasin était fermé, les jalousies des trois fenêtres de l’entresol entièrement rabattues. Quand la charrette passa devant la fenêtre de gauche, la fenêtre de la chambre bleue, une main de femme, qui portait à l’annulaire une bague d’argent, écarta le bord de la jalousie et lança vers Gamelin un œillet rouge que ses mains liées ne purent saisir, mais qu’il adora comme le symbole et l’image de ces lèvres rouges et parfumées dont s’était rafraîchie sa bouche. Ses yeux se gonflèrent de larmes et ce fut tout pénétré du charme de cet adieu qu’il vit se lever sur la place de la Révolution le couteau ensanglanté.
English
“I die justly,” he thought. “It is just that we should receive these insults flung at the Republic, from which we ought to have defended it. We were weak; we made ourselves guilty of indulgence. We betrayed the Republic. We have deserved our fate. Robespierre himself, the pure, the holy, sinned through gentleness, through mildness; his faults are wiped out by his martyrdom. Following his example, I betrayed the Republic; it is perishing: it is just that I should die with it. I spared blood: let my blood flow! Let me perish! I have deserved it.…”
As he thought this, he caught sight of the sign of the Amour peintre, and torrents of bitterness and sweetness rushed tumultuously through his heart.
The shop was shut, the blinds of the three mezzanine windows completely lowered. When the cart passed the left-hand window, the window of the blue room, a woman’s hand, wearing a silver ring on its fourth finger, drew aside the edge of the blind and threw Gamelin a red carnation. His bound hands could not catch it, but he adored it as the symbol and image of those red, fragrant lips that had refreshed his mouth. His eyes filled with tears; and, wholly penetrated by the charm of this farewell, he saw the bloodstained blade rise above the Place de la Révolution.
Socrates
Reading The Gods Are Athirst · Chapter XXVIII · Chapter XXVIII · Paragraphs 14–16
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Anatole France’s The Gods Are Athirst follows the painter Évariste Gamelin as revolutionary conviction draws him into the work of the Revolutionary Tribunal. This complete French–English edition preserves the novel’s twenty-nine chapters, paired by source paragraph, with an introduction, historical orientation, glossary, and chapter notes.
Historical Text and Translation
The novel appeared in volume in 1912. The complete French reading text follows Project Gutenberg eBook 36477, whose underlying impression is undated and carries a later Brodard & Taupin colophon. Chapter I was also checked against a separate 1912 printing; that limited collation is distinguished from the source used for the whole novel.
About Diotimos Editions
The new English translation and editorial matter were generated and revised with AI for Diotimos Editions. The reader preserves the supplied paragraph pairing, songs, quoted letters, and 431 chapter notes, together with the source register and the edition’s statement of editorial responsibility.
Rights
Anatole France’s French source work is in the public domain. The new 2026 English translation and Diotimos editorial matter are credited as supplied in this bilingual edition.