From the book
The Gods Are Athirst
Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Meaning
Lemma.
Faucher literally means to mow with a scythe. Applied to a judicial section killing men and women, it turns the count of verdicts into a harvest of bodies. The grammatical subject includes Gamelin and his section, not the guillotine alone: responsibility remains attached to the people who produce the sentences.
Places to read
- Chapter XIII, paragraph 17Frenchfauchèrent quarante-cinq hommes et dix-huit femmes: mowed down forty-five men and eighteen women. A narratorial summary of the following week’s judicial activity.