From the book
The Gods Are Athirst
Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Meaning
Related words and phrases.
Faisceaux ordinarily means bundles, but these artistic settings use the classical bundles of rods as emblems of public authority: fasces. They frame Gamelin’s proposed card aces, renamed Laws, and cover the courtroom walls beside red caps where royal judges once sat against fleurs-de-lis. When he returns as an outlaw, the axes, fasces and caps remain unchanged. The emblem therefore crosses art, institutional continuity and a reversal of political roles. It is neither an arbitrary bundle nor a reference to a twentieth-century political movement.
Places to read
- Chapter III, paragraph 38Frenchles as, entourés de faisceaux: aces framed by emblems of authority. Gamelin calls these aces Laws.
- Chapter XV, paragraph 1Frenchtapissées de faisceaux et de bonnets rouges: covered with fasces and red caps. The narrator immediately compares the judges with royal predecessors against fleurs-de-lis.
- Chapter XXVIII, paragraph 3Frenchles haches, les faisceaux, les bonnets rouges: the axes, fasces and red caps. Unchanged wallpaper surrounds the former juror as an accused outlaw.