From the book
The Gods Are Athirst
Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Meaning
Related words and phrases.
Suspect can be an adjective, meaning regarded with distrust, or a noun naming a person under suspicion; suspecter means to suspect or cast suspicion upon, and suspicion names the condition or act of distrust. The family does not itself establish guilt, a conviction or even a completed arrest. Longuemare’s frightened appearance makes him suspect to a crowd whose inference the narrator explicitly challenges: its hurried judgements can terrify the innocent. Desmahis becomes “the suspect” through mistaken identification and escapes after testimony and a civic certificate. Rochemaure’s suspect correspondence, her searched house and her arrested friend show different stages of exposure, not interchangeable legal outcomes. Brotteaux’s claim that he and Longuemare are both suspects connects their vulnerability to lacking certificates; his “suspects” carried on a pole are jumping jacks, a comic extension of the vocabulary to supposedly subversive objects. Trubert opposes indiscriminately spreading suspicion while defending the Tribunal’s institutional authority. The English preserves “suspect” for both persons and correspondence, and “suspected” for the prison informers: that last qualification must not become proof that the two men really are spies.
Places to read
- Chapter VI, paragraph 31Frenchle rendait suspect au populaire: made him suspect to the populace. Longuemare’s visible fear prompts the crowd’s inference; the narrator immediately rejects fear as a reliable test of guilt.
- Chapter VIII, paragraph 22Frenchde telles correspondances étaient alors suspectes: such correspondence was suspect then. The narrator explains Rochemaure’s wish for support at court; suspicion is not itself a conviction.
- Chapter IX, paragraph 31Frenchsans jeter partout la suspicion: without spreading suspicion everywhere. Trubert asks whether public safety can be defended without indiscriminate distrust; this is his argument, not an assurance that every institutional decision is sound.
- Chapter X, paragraph 10Frenchle suspect montrât sa carte de civisme: the suspect had to show his civic certificate. The noun refers to the misidentified Desmahis. Witnesses alone do not suffice; he also produces the document.
- Chapter XI, paragraph 7FrenchElle-même était suspecte: she was a suspect herself. Rochemaure has been searched without incriminating papers being found; the narration separately states that Morhardt has been arrested.
- Chapter XII, paragraph 10Frenchportant ses suspects sur l’épaule: carrying his suspects over his shoulder. The possessive refers ironically to Brotteaux’s rejected jumping jacks, not a group of prisoners.
- Chapter XII, paragraph 23FrenchNous sommes tous deux suspects: we are both suspects. Brotteaux explicitly precedes this conclusion by saying he too lacks a civic certificate; he nevertheless shelters Longuemare.
- Chapter XIX, paragraph 28Frenchqu’on suspectait d’être des "moutons": suspected of being prison informers. Navette and Bellier’s informer status is presented as suspicion, not established fact.