From the book
The Gods Are Athirst
Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Meaning
Lemma.
Brimborion is a small, supposedly trifling or useless object. Longuemare applies the dismissive word to the toys and suggests Boucher and Watteau should have confined themselves to such innocent productions. His judgement concerns both the low status of the objects and a moral reservation about the painters’ other work; it is not the narrator’s dismissal of the livelihood the toys provide.
Places to read
- Chapter XIV, paragraph 12Frenchde tels brimborions: such trifling objects. Longuemare judges the decorative painters through a cleric’s concern with innocence.