From the book
The Gods Are Athirst
Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Meaning
Lemma.
Expédier can mean dispatching something or getting a task done quickly. The exhausted jurors expédient Madame Roland, reducing a person’s trial to another item in an overfull workload. The edition’s “disposed ... of” preserves both speed and the chilling objectification; it is not the neutral postal sense of sending a letter.
Places to read
- Chapter XVI, paragraph 40Frenchexpédièrent le plus rapidement possible la femme Roland: disposed of Madame Roland as quickly as possible. The narrator briefly adopts the judicial designation femme Roland amid a description of heavy work.