From the book
The Gods Are Athirst
Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordLibertinage carries sexual licence together with associations of freethinking or unbelief; mœurs are manners or morals; débauche is dissolute indulgence.
- In the novelThe accusation against Brotteaux calls libertinage and bad morals the greatest enemies of liberty and popular happiness.
- In this editionThe English retains “libertinage” to avoid reducing the historical range to sexual promiscuity alone.
- A place to readle libertinage et les mauvaises mœurs: libertinage and bad morals.
Meaning
Related words and phrases.
Libertinage carries sexual licence together with associations of freethinking or unbelief; mœurs are manners or morals; débauche is dissolute indulgence. In the indictment these terms are not neutral classifications of private life. They link moral disapproval to an allegation of political conspiracy and convert social intimacy into supposed criminal association.
Use in the book
The accusation against Brotteaux calls libertinage and bad morals the greatest enemies of liberty and popular happiness. The apparent verbal kinship of liberty and licence does not establish their moral relation: it is the prosecutor who insists that the second destroys the first. Brotteaux’s religious scepticism, former wealth and sexual history are presented as mutually confirming signs of one pernicious character.
The indictment then alleges concubinage with Athénaïs and promiscuity between her and Longuemare. The narrated history and the defendants’ replies make those allegations unsafe to repeat as facts. Athénaïs says Brotteaux never asked for sexual favours; Longuemare answers the insinuation with pained silence. Their shared shelter and gratitude have been translated into a sexual plot by the official account.
The priest’s final words offer a different relation between conduct and judgment. He does not deny Athénaïs’s disorders but praises her simple heart and gives absolution. Brotteaux in turn remains sensuously attached to life until the last scene. The novel thus distinguishes sexual experience, human kindness, theological belief and political guilt, precisely where the prosecution merges them. A word-focused reading must preserve these distinctions rather than choosing one blanket description, libertine, innocent, saint or conspirator, for the whole person.
Places to read
- Chapter XXIV, paragraph 4Frenchle libertinage et les mauvaises mœurs: libertinage and bad morals. The indictment claims they are enemies of liberty and collective happiness.
- Chapter XXIV, paragraph 5Frenchvivait en concubinage: was living in concubinage. A prosecution allegation later contradicted by Athénaïs’s explanation.
- Chapter XXIV, paragraph 9Frenchune honteuse promiscuité: shameful promiscuity. The indictment sexualises Longuemare’s shared shelter.
- Chapter XXIV, paragraph 31Frenchmais qu’il ne le lui avait pas demandé: but he had not asked her. Athénaïs directly corrects the supposed sexual relation with Brotteaux.
- Chapter XXIV, paragraph 56Frenchde grands désordres: great disorders. Longuemare’s moral vocabulary accompanies, rather than excludes, praise of her heart.
Translation in this edition
The English retains “libertinage” to avoid reducing the historical range to sexual promiscuity alone. “Concubine,” “concubinage,” and “promiscuity” occur inside a quoted indictment and must remain allegations. The note in the supplied edition discusses the breadth of libertinage; that editorial explanation is distinct from the prosecutor’s assertion about its political effects.