DiotimosReading Desk

Body

Lenten face

face de carême

The insult evokes a sour, lean or mournful face through Lent’s association with fasting.

From the book

The Gods Are Athirst

Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Meaning

Phrase.

The insult evokes a sour, lean or mournful face through Lent’s association with fasting. Athénaïs combines it with charges of hypocrisy and cuckoldry. The phrase attacks the president’s appearance and sanctimonious manner; it does not say that he is presently observing Lent. The literal-sounding English “Lenten face” retains the cultural image and requires this local explanation.

Places to read

  1. Chapter XXIV, paragraph 33Frenchface de carême: a Lenten face. One of Athénaïs’s insults against the president.