From the book
The Gods Are Athirst
Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordTrahison denotes betrayal and, in political accusations, treason.
- In the novelGamelin’s first outburst treats the opponents who wanted Marat prosecuted as traitors who wanted his death.
- In this editionThe edition commonly uses “traitor,” “treachery” and “betray” according to syntax.
- A place to readtraîtres fédéralistes: partisan condemnation.
Meaning
Related words and phrases.
Trahison denotes betrayal and, in political accusations, treason. A traître is the person so labelled; trahir is to betray. The family does not itself supply proof of the alleged act. It can name an established breach, a partisan conclusion, or a category used to explain unwelcome events.
Use in the book
Gamelin’s first outburst treats the opponents who wanted Marat prosecuted as traitors who wanted his death. When Beauvisage reports Custine’s evacuation of Landau, Gamelin immediately cries “traitor,” and Beauvisage predicts the guillotine. Trubert at least retains an alternative: incompetent or traitor, the commander will be replaced after examination. That alternative is narrow and punitive in outlook, but its “or” still marks a distinction the earlier verdict had erased.
In the household discussion, treachery becomes a comprehensive explanation of shortages, military danger and political opposition. The pluralised surnames “des Pétion et des Roland” turn particular names into an accusatory class. Later Gamelin tells Blaise that discouraging defenders at home betrays the liberty supposedly being carried abroad. Betrayal has expanded from identifiable disloyal acts to a threatening judgement on discouraging speech.
The opening courtship plot reveals the danger of this habit of explanation without requiring a judicial case. Gamelin infers that Élodie’s former lover is a noble émigré and joins the Republic’s cause to his promised personal vengeance. The narrator explicitly supplies a different social identity. The reader can thus watch a political classification being made before being asked to accept its consequences.
Places to read
- Chapter I, paragraph 5Frenchtraîtres fédéralistes: partisan condemnation. Gamelin calls for the deaths of political opponents associated with the prosecution of Marat.
- Chapter I, paragraph 26FrenchCustine est un traître!: immediate accusation following military news. The preceding report is an evacuation; the accusation is Gamelin’s response.
- Chapter I, paragraph 29FrenchIncapable ou traître: retained alternative explanations. Trubert says the conduct will be examined and the general replaced.
- Chapter II, paragraph 18Frenchles trahisons des Pétion et des Roland: individual names made into suspect types. Gamelin’s causal rhetoric, not a narrator’s independently established finding.
- Chapter III, paragraph 51Frenchcette liberté qu’on trahit dans ses foyers: domestic speech construed as betrayal. Gamelin accuses Blaise of undermining morale after the commercial dispute.
Translation in this edition
The edition commonly uses “traitor,” “treachery” and “betray” according to syntax. These English words retain the charge without elevating it to a legal verdict. In II.18, “men like Pétion and Roland” conveys the French pluralisation. The explicit alternatives “incompetent or a traitor” at I.29 must not be compressed into “treacherous incompetence”: the relation is disjunctive, not cumulative.