From the book
The Gods Are Athirst
Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Meaning
Lemma.
A rochet is a white ecclesiastical garment worn over a cassock, resembling a surplice. The clerics formerly chanted the offices in it, while the present patriots wear red caps in the same nave. The contrast is not a claim that the identical people have simply changed clothes: the building’s remembered religious use and its current political assembly are laid over one another through sound, dress and sight.
Places to read
- Chapter I, paragraph 1Frenchchanter en rochet les offices divins: clerical dress in the former worship. The next clause gives the present patriots in red caps.