From the book
The Gods Are Athirst
Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Meaning
Lemma.
Liquid manure or slurry in the farmyard. It fills Tronche’s clogs and later appears in the account of her exposed skin. The concrete word binds bodily description to agricultural labour and classed judgements of cleanliness. It is not a neutral euphemism for water or a figurative reference to moral corruption.
Places to read
- Chapter X, paragraph 47FrenchLe purin qui remplissait ses sabots: Liquid manure filling her clogs. The narrator describes her working barefoot inside the clogs.
- Chapter X, paragraph 68Frenchdes éclaboussures de purin: Splashes of liquid manure. The body’s youth and freshness are described amid visible dirt.