DiotimosReading Desk

Clothes

Disguise and borrowed papers

travestissement

Travestissement here is disguise by dress, including cross-gender disguise, not the English evaluative sense of a ludicrous distortion.

From the book

The Gods Are Athirst

Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Meaning

Lemma.

Travestissement here is disguise by dress, including cross-gender disguise, not the English evaluative sense of a ludicrous distortion. Julie explains practical motives: finding work, avoiding recognition or matching a borrowed certificate or passport. Her mother fears Évariste’s reaction because he treats clothing as a question of morals and propriety. The conflict opposes immediate survival to a judgement of outward form.

Places to read

  1. Chapter XVIII, paragraph 50Frenchces travestissements: these disguises. Julie describes common expedients of exile and disorder.
  2. Chapter XVIII, paragraph 50Frenchfaire concorder un passeport ou un certificat empruntés: make oneself match borrowed papers. Documentary identity can be performed through clothing.