The Gods Are Athirst

Editorial Note

The French text

The French reading text is based on the public-domain transcription distributed as Project Gutenberg number 36477, which credits images supplied by the Bibliothèque nationale de France through Gallica. It contains all twenty-nine chapters. A second complete transcription on Wikisource was compared at word level to identify omissions, variants and obvious transcription problems. The comparison is a check between reading texts, not a collation of every surviving edition or manuscript.

The complete transcription preserves a Brodard & Taupin printer’s colophon, reproduced separately at the back of this edition with an English rendering. That later printer’s imprint should not be confused with the novel’s original publication date of 1912. The date and impression of the volume underlying the complete transcription have not been established. The colophon is source evidence, not part of the novel’s final scene, and is excluded from Chapter XXIX.

A separate Calmann-Lévy printing with a 1912 copyright page was inspected in the Google Books scan CUNMAAAAMAAJ. Its opening chapter occupies printed pages 1–8, all of which were visually compared with the transcriptions. This visual check covers Chapter I only; the complete reading text has not been collated throughout against a physical 1912 copy. The BnF separately catalogues a 1912 edition under FRBNF30457694. The Wikisource edition record also says 1912, but the Internet Archive item to which it links is catalogued as 1921. These different digital copies are not identified as the same physical volume, and no particular first impression is claimed.

The full French text is presented as a reading edition. Paragraph locators are editorial additions; they are keyed to the transcription and remain stable across the five formats. Embedded letters and songs are included. Display typography regularises apostrophes and dialogue dashes. The selected transcription’s wording is retained; important variants and consequential translation choices are discussed in the notes.

The English

The English is a new rendering prepared directly from the French. Existing English translations were not used as the prose base. British spelling is used. Names and meaningful repetitions are retained; sentences may be divided when natural English requires it. Songs, letters, artistic descriptions and sexual passages are translated in full.

The translation seeks to keep the differences among narration, speech, reported speech and inward thought. Political accusations remain attributable to the character who makes them. Historical errors or compressions in France’s story are retained in the translation and explained in notes. The presence of a historical name does not turn the surrounding fiction into documentary testimony.

A single set of institutional terms is used through the book. The section’s local committees remain distinct from those of the Convention; the National Guard remains distinct from the army. Citizen renders both citoyen and citoyenne as an English civic form of address. The names of the revolutionary months and unfamiliar units of money are explained rather than replaced by invented equivalents.

The notes

The notes identify people, institutions, places, works of art, literary allusions, religious language and technical vocabulary. Some explain a choice made by the translator. Interpretive observations are distinguished from external historical claims. A reference to a primary document supplies evidence for the particular point stated; it does not authenticate every detail of the fictional scene.

Footnotes restart on each English page in the print edition. The ebook and Markdown notes use stable chapter identifiers because reflowable pages vary between devices. Source references are linked and gathered in the source register. Repeated references may be shortened by those identifiers. The outline reveals the plot; the glossary gives a consolidated guide to recurring terms.

Parallel pages and digital reading

The French is placed on even, left-hand pages and the English on the facing odd pages. Pagination is planned in paired passages: a shorter text leaves space instead of being allowed to run independently into the next chapter or spread. Added paragraph locators provide a shared point of reference when the languages divide sentences differently. They should not be confused with the printed page numbers of the 1912 volume.

The Markdown file pairs source passages with their English renderings in reading order. The bilingual EPUB pairs corresponding passages and can stack the two languages on a narrow display. The English-only EPUB contains the complete English translation, notes and editorial matter without the parallel French text. These digital arrangements preserve the order of the work while allowing readers to change type size.

Authorship and editorial status

The English translation and editorial matter were generated and revised with AI for Diotimos Editions in 2026. The edition records the source checks and review work actually performed; no human translator or external scholarly endorsement is credited. Anatole France’s original French novel is in the public domain, and no copyright claim in that original is made.