Download The Gods Will Have Blood Penguin Twentieth Century Classics Anatole France Frederick Davies Books

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Product details Series Penguin Twentieth Century Classics Paperback 256 pages Publisher Penguin Classics; Reprint edition (March 27, 1980) Language English ISBN-10 9780140443523 ISBN-13 978-0140443523 ASIN 0140443525

The Gods Will Have Blood Penguin Twentieth Century Classics Anatole France Frederick Davies Books Reviews

• A very engrossing story about a mediocre artist who becomes enraptured by extremist ideology and winds up becoming a juror during Robespierre's infamous Reign of Terror. France's satiric approach is similar to Sinclair Lewis at his best, and the depictions of the "bilious" Marat and the sanctimonious Robespierre are especially priceless. It's amazing to think that this book was published in 1912, since it anticipates the destructive ideologies of the 20th century.
• While not the most riveting of pieces ever created, The Gods Will Have Blood does examine the events of the French Revolution from a contemporary standpoint with a certain intimacy of the subject that is difficult to find in secondary accounts. A good read for students of European history but not a NY Times Bestseller caliber choice.
• The Gods Will Have Blood is an excellent novel, but I do not recommend it for those who do not have a fairly substantial understanding of the French Revolution. Though a reader would still find themselves enjoying the book regardless of historical knowledge, one will not achieve full understanding and enjoyment if such knowledge does not take its lodging in the reader's mind.
  In the event that one does know a good bit about the revolution, he or she will get a lot out of this book. There are, of course, no photographs or videos we can look at from that era, so it is difficult for us to look at the event as anything more than a chapter in a textbook or an interesting lecture. The Gods Will Have Blood does an impressive job of putting the reader in the middle of the action, therefore making it a good book for students to read as a supplement to class, no matter the age. It brings to life what is otherwise simply a reason for a test.
  Also, the novel is fictional, but the historical figures and events are real, and the things that happen to the main characters are based on what would actually happen to people of the sort had they lived at that time.
• Great translation, but could be better.
• The Gods Are Athirst, a novel by Nobel Prize winner Anatole France, was originally published in 1912 under the French title of Les dieux ont soif. The story takes place from 1793 to 1794, during the period of the French Revolution known as The Terror. Évariste Gamelin is a young painter actively involved in the local political activities of his neighborhood. His enthusiasm for the Republican cause is duly noted, and he is appointed to the office of juror on the Revolutionary Tribunal. The Jacobins are rounding up former aristocrats and anyone else who might sympathize with the former king. These offenders are corralled into the courtroom for cursory show trials, wherein Gamelin and his fellow jurors pass judgment upon them, the usual sentence being death by guillotine. Gamelin is fiercely devoted to the Republican doctrine and practically worships the Jacobin leaders Marat and Robespierre. As his judicial office slowly transforms him from an earnest, likeable young man to a cold, merciless executioner, his family and friends begin to fear him, wary they might be next on the chopping block.
  
  I usually think of France as a satirist, but in this historical novel he’s deadly serious. He does, however, contrast Gamelin with the character of Maurice Brotteaux, a former aristocrat who looks askance at the Republican rhetoric with an irreverent viewpoint and humorous sense of the ironic that one might expect from the author. France wrote this book for an audience of his fellow Frenchman, so the reader is expected to come armed with a prior knowledge of the Revolution. For the American reader, it can be tough going at times. France defines his characters by listing off the surnames of the politicians, philosophers, and artists they subscribe to, which can result in passages that read like a Parisian phone book. It’s not quite as confusing as Victor Hugo’s novel of the Revolution, Ninety-Three, but it’s neither as exciting nor as inspiring either. France’s takes on the period is more realistic and less heroic than Hugo’s, yet The Gods Are Athirst still presents a romantic tale that somewhat resembles a tragic opera.
  
  France does a good job of evoking the atmosphere of paranoia and persecution that must have pervaded Paris under the Terror. Beyond its conveyance of time and place, however, the story is less than satisfying. It’s hard to become emotionally involved in a novel when you don’t care for the hero, and from early on it becomes difficult to root for Gamelin. The supporting cast, with the possible exception of Brotteaux, are underdeveloped. They all sort of orbit around Gamelin, but none of them ever steps up to challenge him as the focus of attention. There are some compelling moments around the book’s mid-point, but the first half crawls, and the ending is a foregone conclusion.
  
  While the dramatic potential of the French Revolution is undeniable, The Gods Are Athirst never takes full advantage of that potential. The result is more educational than moving. Ultimately this is one historical novel where the history outshines the novel.