The Gods Will Have Blood (Les Dieux Ont Soif) (Paperback)

by Anatole France (Author), Frederick Davies (Introduction, Translator) "VERY early one morning, Evariste Gamelin - artist, pupil of David, member of the Section du Pont-Neuf, formerly Section Henri IV - was to be..." (more)
Key Phrases: toy merchant, ont soif, dancing dolls, Father Longuemare, Revolutionary Tribunal, Citizen Blaise (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
It is April 1793 and the final power struggle of the French Revolution is taking hold: the aristocrats are dead and the poor are fighting for bread in the streets. In a Paris swept by fear and hunger lives Gamelin, a revolutionary young artist appointed magistrate, and given the power of life and death over the citizens of France. But his intense idealism and unbridled single-mindedness drive him inexorably towards catastrophe. Published in 1912, The Gods Will Have Blood is a breathtaking story of the dangers of fanaticism, while its depiction of the violence and devastation of the Reign of Terror is strangely prophetic of the sweeping political changes in Russia and across Europe. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Language Notes
Text: English, French (translation) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (December 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140184570
• ISBN-13: 978-0140184570
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #929,382 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Classic of French Literature?, July 2, 2000

By	Bruce Kendall "BEK" (Southern Pines, NC) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

I once challenged myself to read all the Penguin Classics in the Viking catalogue. I think I've made it through about 70% of the listings and feel rewarded for the effort. I couldn't recall much about this one, so I re-read it recently. Its not a work that I would wholeheartedly recommend. Anatole France, like Flaubert, is known for "le mot juste," however Flaubert was a greater craftsman than France (whose real name was Jacques Thilbault). Perhaps there is need of a better translation. Even the title in this Penguin edition is misleading. There is no reference to "Blood" in the original (Les Dieux ont soif).

The story follows the upwardly mobile path of Evariste Gamelin, a young Parisian painter and student of the reknowned Jacques Louis David (whose famous portrait of Marat lying assassinated in his bathtub adorns the cover of the Peguin edition). Gamelin is one of those single-minded idealists who show up wherever and whenever there is a revolution to be fought. His hero is Robespierre, and while Robespierre's star is in the ascendent, during the Reign of Terror, Gamelin's star shines too. He is transformed from struggling artist to magistrate on the Revolutionary Tribunal. He also passes from a rather meek lover of humanity, who engages in such altruistic acts of kindness as giving half his last loaf of bread to a hungry mother and her child, to a monstrous, indiscriminate killing machine, sending innocent victims by the droves to their deaths. He settles scores with most of the characters in the novel, sending them to the guillotine sometimes for personal reasons, at other times simply as a matter of implimenting his messianic impulses. Eventually the bloody excesses of Gamelin and his ilk serve to inflame the populace, who turn on Robespierre and his Jacobin followers, Gamelin included.

Frederick Davies, the translator of this edition, contends that "The Gods Will Have Blood is not only the greatest novel Anatole France wrote, it is one of the greatest of French novels." I strongly disagree. I don't see Anatole France even approaching such novelists as Flaubert, Hugo, Huysmans, Gide, Stendhal, etc. This work is definitely of the second rank as well. The novel is structured rather clumsily. France spends almost the entire first half of the book on exposition. Plot and characterization serve primarily as vehicles for France's polemics. The writing is static, the descriptions highly conventional. There is no comparison to Hugo, Flaubert or Stendhal, who wrote historical novels but invested them with riveting characters and who all had a wonderful eye for detail. Flaubert labored and struggled over each word in his novels, but the finished result was seamless. One is not aware of the labor when reading, one simply enjoys the result and is caught up in the narrative. With France, one is conscious of the labor and the fussing and fumbling. He tries very hard, but the mechanics are flawed and the operation is exposed in all its frailty.

If you want to read a good treatment of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror that ensued, I would suggest Carlyle. Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities is naturally the most famous novel covering the period, but I'm not a Dickens fan. As you can judge from my reaction to this book, I'm not a big Anatole France fan either, though Penguin Island was at least mildly entertaining.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vital, trenchant, close to the best of French Lit, January 15, 2003

By	E. M Massanet (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Anatole France's "The Gods Will Have Blood" (1912) is a meditation on the price of unbridled fanaticism. Several key personages and events of the French Revolution figure in the story; most notibly Maximllien Robespierre and the death of Jean-Paul Marat.

But don't expect exquisite characterizations, ala Flaubert, Dostoyevski, Henry James or James Joyce. Such was not France's aim. This is a cautionary tale; one that recapitulates Robespierre, the Terror and Napoleon, and prefigures the Soviets and the Nazis.

In fact, France's articulation of the maddening rationale by fanatical judges--that it is they, not their victims, who suffer as they go about the bloody work of enforcing national policies with the murder of perceived enemies--is visited through concentration camp butcher Rudolph Hoess in William Styron's "Sophie's Choice" (1976).

Only the translation prevents this novel from five stars. Given the fact that French is second only to ancient Greek in terms of damage from translation, and it becomes a minor complaint.

This is a novel by a master (Anatole France won the Nobel for Lit in 1921). Read this book; it's an education.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Better History than Novel, March 11, 2005

By	JLM (Maine, USA) - See all my reviews

This novel makes a point of being historically accurate, and for the most part succeeds. Notes at the back of the book help the reader who is unversed in the complexities of the French Revolution understand some details. While the style of writing fits well with the unsatisfactory nature of the Terror, overall the book isn't a great read. The plot is slow to take off, and the characters are difficult to find realistic. However, if what you're looking for is less literary genuis and more history, this is the book for you.
Davies' introduction is somewhat long, providing a lengthy biography of France as well as an introduction to the book. The translation is consistent and I did not encounter any problems that could be blamed on poor translation.