From the book
The Gods Are Athirst
Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPatriote designates someone devoted to the country and, in this novel’s political setting, to the revolutionary cause.
- In the novelThe opening church contains patriots where it formerly contained worshippers.
- In this edition“Patriot,” “patriotic” and “patriotism” maintain the political family without silently substituting “good citizen” in every occurrence.
- A place to readles patriotes seraient en minorité: a politically committed group, not all citizens.
Meaning
Lemma.
Patriote designates someone devoted to the country and, in this novel’s political setting, to the revolutionary cause. Patriotisme is that allegiance as a disposition; patrie is the country conceived as the object of it. The noun can describe a felt common commitment, certify someone’s reliability, or divide a crowd into legitimate and illegitimate political actors.
Use in the book
The opening church contains patriots where it formerly contained worshippers. Dupont’s warning that patriots would be a minority if every elector attended prevents the label from being equated with the whole voting population. Yet Chapter I does not consequently empty patriotism of generous substance. Trubert works for recruitment and supply while demanding support for poor soldiers’ families. The closing narrator gives serious weight to his solidarity with the nation and to the danger these obscure revolutionaries face.
Gamelin’s patriotism passes into his art: he fills allegorical canvases and drawings of volunteers with patriotic ardour. His inability to enlist follows from an ordinary duty that the public vocabulary might obscure: his mother would be left without bread. The care of a dependent person is a limit upon the form his devotion can take, not evidence that his declared enthusiasm is false.
Blaise’s declaration “I am as patriotic as you” is made after Gamelin’s tone has warned him to be cautious. He adduces supplies to the army as proof. The earlier account of wet oats and bundles of rushes makes the commercial claim suspect without making every supplier a fraud. Patriot thus remains a disputed credential. The reader must set the claimant’s words beside the conduct already narrated, rather than treating repetition of the title as independent corroboration.
Places to read
- Chapter I, paragraph 8Frenchles patriotes seraient en minorité: a politically committed group, not all citizens. Dupont speaks hypothetically about full attendance.
- Chapter I, paragraph 34Frenchuni dans un commun effort à tous les patriotes: collective revolutionary solidarity. Narratorial account of Trubert’s labour and serenity; read with the material aid requested at I.31.
- Chapter II, paragraph 12Frenchen rejoignant les armées il eût laissé sa mère sans pain: a domestic constraint on patriotic service. Gamelin’s enthusiasm for volunteers does not erase his responsibility to his mother.
- Chapter III, paragraph 49FrenchJe suis aussi républicain que vous, je suis aussi patriote que vous: a claim to equal political reliability. Blaise defends himself after Gamelin demands names; compare the supplier’s business at III.19.
Translation in this edition
“Patriot,” “patriotic” and “patriotism” maintain the political family without silently substituting “good citizen” in every occurrence. The source’s patrie can become “country,” while salut de la patrie becomes “country’s salvation” at III.53: related concepts, not one French lemma. The narrator’s qualified admiration for Trubert must coexist with the coercive use of the label elsewhere.