From the book
The Gods Are Athirst
Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Meaning
Phrase.
The bonnet rouge is worn clothing and a repeatable emblem of revolutionary allegiance. Patriots wear it in the converted church, Gamelin puts it on a card figure, and Blaise recalls it atop Liberty trees. Some jurors pull it over their ears; Beauvisage’s is explicitly a badge of office. Its circulation from bodies to images and ceremony does not make every wearer identical in class, motive or authority. Nor is every bonnet political: identify the complete phrase rather than importing this sense into the mother’s ordinary cap.
Places to read
- Chapter I, paragraph 1Frenchpatriotes en bonnet rouge: wearable political emblem. The patriots assemble in the former sacred space.
- Chapter II, paragraph 39Frenchen bonnet rouge et en carmagnole: wearing a red cap and carmagnole. The political costume becomes part of Gamelin’s planned card figure.
- Chapter III, paragraph 47Frenchd’arbres de la Liberté coiffés du bonnet rouge: the emblem transferred to a ceremonial tree. One item in Blaise’s weary catalogue of revolutionary spectacle.
- Chapter XI, paragraph 31Frenchle bonnet rouge cachant les oreilles: the red cap covering the ears. A concrete bodily detail in the varied jury dress.
- Chapter XVII, paragraph 36Frenchdu bonnet rouge, insigne de ses fonctions: the red cap, badge of his office. Beauvisage performs pacification while acting as a local official.