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Diotimos Library · Literary Fiction Collection · Bilingual Edition

Anatole France

The Gods Are Athirst

Les Dieux ont soif · Complete French–English bilingual edition

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The Gods Are AthirstChapter III · Paragraphs 61–66

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French Page · Branch 23 of 120

Chapter III · Paragraphs 61–66

Edition pages

Printed pages in the supplied Diotimos 2026 bilingual edition.

French
Diotimos 2026 p. 68
English
Diotimos 2026 p. 69

French

"Viens, lui dit Gamelin, j’ai à te parler d’une affaire importante.

— Laisse-moi!" répondit vivement Desmahis.

Et il jeta quelques mots indistincts, en guettant le moment de s’élancer:

"Je suivais une femme divine, en chapeau de paille, une ouvrière de modes, ses cheveux blonds sur le dos: cette maudite charrette m’en a séparé.... Elle a passé devant, elle est déjà au bout du pont."

Gamelin tenta de le retenir par son habit, jurant que la chose était d’importance.

Mais Desmahis s’était déjà coulé à travers chevaux, gardes, sabres et torches et poursuivait la demoiselle de modes.

English

“Come with me,” Gamelin said. “I need to speak to you about an important matter.”

“Leave me alone!” Desmahis answered sharply.

Watching for his moment to dash forward, he flung out a few indistinct words.

“I was following a divine woman in a straw hat, a milliner, her fair hair down her back. That damned cart separated us… She’s gone ahead; she’s already at the end of the bridge.”

Gamelin tried to hold him by his coat, insisting that the matter was important.

But Desmahis had already slipped through horses, guards, sabres and torches and was pursuing the milliner.

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.