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Institutions

Convention

Convention

The National Convention is the national representative assembly, not the Paris municipal government or a meeting of Gamelin’s section.

From the book

The Gods Are Athirst

Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Meaning

Lemma.

The National Convention is the national representative assembly, not the Paris municipal government or a meeting of Gamelin’s section. It receives petitions, is asked for instructions, and establishes national institutions. The long account at II.10 gives it both destructive and cultural agency: it devours its own through the tribunal while creating schools, exhibitions and a public museum. The narrator’s provisional “it was surely no fault” does not cancel either half of that deliberately mixed portrayal.

Places to read

  1. Chapter I, paragraph 2Frenchla Convention: national recipient of the petition. The petition calls for the expulsion of specified members.
  2. Chapter II, paragraph 10FrenchCe n’était pas, sans doute, la faute de la Convention: a qualified defence before a mixed account. Read the complete sentence, including violence, self-destruction and cultural labour.