Thais is best known today as an opera by Massenet. Its source is Anatole France's 1890 novel about a monk whose consuming desire to reform a courtesan leads him into a pit of degradation. The tale is set in Egypt during the reign of Constantine, a time when Christianity had yet to establish its dominance. Thus, the skeptic France has one character asking: How are we supposed to believe in Christ when even the peasants no longer believe in the old gods?
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