From the book
The Gods Are Athirst
Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordDormir and sommeil name ordinary sleep but also supply a familiar figure for death.
- In the novelSleep first fails Gamelin in the closing movement.
- In this editionThe translation’s “regret life” and “regretted the light of day” preserve attachment to existence rather than moral remorse.
- A place to readun sommeil plein de cauchemars: sleep full of nightmares.
Meaning
Related words and phrases.
Dormir and sommeil name ordinary sleep but also supply a familiar figure for death. The resemblance is deliberately imperfect: a sleeper can wake, whereas Brotteaux’s account of death excludes the continuing awareness that would be needed to verify it. Regretter retains the force of missing or grieving what one is losing; in his final words it does not mean repenting of having lived.
Use in the book
Sleep first fails Gamelin in the closing movement. He cannot rest except for brief intervals in Élodie’s room; nightmares and cries interrupt the bodily relief she offers. The scene of the Eumenides gives his suffering a tragic pattern without making the dream a trustworthy judicial verdict. In chapter XXVII his sleep is compared with that of the disciples while the death of the Just Man approaches. Rest becomes an image of failure to keep watch, as well as a human necessity.
Brotteaux’s last sleep is explicitly philosophical. He would like to wake Longuemare after death to show him that neither feeling nor knowledge remains. The imagined demonstration defeats itself, and the joke is followed by severe bodily pain. Brotteaux admits that he loves life and leaves it with regret. His unbelief is not thereby refuted, and his fear does not imply conversion.
Longuemare suggests that his own comparative calm comes from seeing a light Brotteaux does not yet see. Brotteaux replies with another possible explanation: he regrets life more because he has enjoyed it more. The conditional “might also” matters. Neither reply is a narrator-certified explanation of the other man’s inward state. Longuemare then confesses his own need for spiritual aid and asks the unbeliever to pray for him. The ending gives mutual dependence rather than a clean victory in debate.
Places to read
- Chapter XXIII, paragraph 1Frenchun sommeil plein de cauchemars: sleep full of nightmares. Gamelin’s rest is repeatedly interrupted.
- Chapter XXIV, paragraph 44Frenchnotre dernier sommeil: our last sleep. Brotteaux imagines a posthumous demonstration whose conditions contradict his account of death.
- Chapter XXIV, paragraph 47FrenchJ’aime la vie et ne la quitte point sans regret: I love life and do not leave it without regret. His avowed attachment accompanies, rather than cancels, his philosophical position.
- Chapter XXIV, paragraph 49FrenchCe pourrait être aussi: It might also mean. Brotteaux offers a competing explanation, not a proven diagnosis of Longuemare.
- Chapter XXIV, paragraph 60FrenchIl n’est pas sûr que vous ne soyez pas plus près de lui: It is not certain that you are not nearer to him. Longuemare leaves open the unbeliever’s possible nearness to God.
- Chapter XXVII, paragraph 8Frenchdu sommeil des disciples au jardin des Oliviers: the disciples’ sleep in the Garden of Olives. A narrated religious analogy frames Gamelin’s inaction.
Translation in this edition
The translation’s “regret life” and “regretted the light of day” preserve attachment to existence rather than moral remorse. “You do not yet see” and “do not yet believe” express Longuemare’s hope, not evidence that Brotteaux subsequently believes. The double negative in XXIV.60 must be unpacked carefully: the priest does not know that the atheist is farther from God, and allows that he may be nearer.