Personal recollections from André Gide on a man who profoundly influenced his work—Oscar WildeAndré Gide, a towering figure in French letters, draws upon his friendship with Oscar Wilde to sketch a compelling portrait of the tragic, doomed author, both celebrated and shunned in his time. Rather than compile a complete biography, Gide invites us to discover Wilde as he did—from their first meeting in 1891 to their final parting just two years before Wilde's death—al...

“My novel hasn’t got a subject. Yes, I know it sounds stupid…let’s say, if you prefer it, it hasn’t got one subject…and the subject of the book, if you must have one, is just that the very struggle between what reality offers him and what he himself desires to make of it.”In a novel about a novelist writing a novel that mirrors the novel he is in, what is the reality of the story? The Counterfeiters, written by Nobel Prize winner, André Gide, is an impressively layered and...

This debut work lays bare the early brilliance and philosophical conflicts of André Gide, a towering figure in French literatureAndré Gide, one of the masters of French literature, captures the essence of the philosophical Romantic in this profoundly personal first novel, completed when he was just twenty years old. Drawing heavily on his religious upbringing and private journals, The Notebooks of André Walter—with its "white" and "black" halves—tells the ...

During the 1930s, Gide briefly became a communist, or more precisely, a fellow traveller (he never formally joined the Communist Party). As a distinguished writer sympathising with the cause of communism, he was invited to tour the Soviet Union as a guest of the Soviet Union of writers. The tour disillusioned him and he subsequently became quite critical of Soviet Communism. This criticism of Communism caused him to lose socialist friends, especially when he made a clean break with it in t...

"Prometheus Illbound" is a satirical and symbolic reimagining of the Greek myth of Prometheus, the titan who was punished by the gods for giving fire to humanity. In this version, Prometheus is no longer tightly bound to a rock as in the traditional myth, but rather, he is loosely chained—hence the title "illbound." He is free to walk around and interact with other characters, which leads to a series of philosophical dialogues.Prometheus is portrayed as disillusioned with humanity and unce...

"The Immoralist" recounts the hero's reversal of moral conscience following an illness and a return to health that turns his physiology upside down. One character recounts the lengthy confession Michel, "the immoralist", made in front of a few friends. A scholar with little interest in the flesh, he had once married a devoted woman, Marceline, without any real love, but who had stronger feelings for him. During their honeymoon in North Africa, he falls seriously ill and fights against deat...

This work lays bare the early brilliance and philosophical conflicts of André Gide, a towering figure in French literatureNobel Prize–winning writer André Gide lays bare his adolescent psyche in this early work, first conceived and published as part of his novel The Notebooks of André Walter, completed when he was just twenty years old. This profoundly personal work draws heavily on his religious upbringing and private journals to tell the story of a young...

An inspiring discourse on the power of music from one of the twentieth century's most important figures, André GideAndré Gide, one of the great intellectuals of the twentieth century and a devoted pianist, invites readers to reevaluate Frédéric Chopin as a composer "betrayed . . . deeply, intimately, totally violated" by a music community that had fundamentally misinterpreted his work. As a profound admirer of Chopin's "promenade of discoveries," Gide intersperses ...

This is Andreas Gide’s 1931 novella, “Two Symphonies”. It's the story of a blind girl who is adopted by a pastor with a large family, and describes the unfortunate turmoil and friction that ensue. This marvellous tale is highly recommended for fans of Gide’s work, and would make for a fantastic addition to any collection. André Paul Guillaume Gide (1869–1951) was a French author who won the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature. His work often takes on the form of an exploration of freedom, and i...

Strait is the Gate by André Gide is a profound reflection on love, sacrifice, and the quest for spiritual perfection. Published in 1909, this work focuses on the characters Alissa and Jérôme, who share mutual affection from childhood, but whose love is marked by renunciation and suffering.Through this story, Gide explores themes such as emotional repression, the conflicts between desire and morality, and the ways in which religious or philosophical ideals can shape...

The French writer, André Gide, Nobel Laureate in Literature in 1947, wrote " The Fruits of the Earth" while suffering from tuberculosis. In the form of a long letter or discourse to an imaginary correspondent - Nathanael, an idealized disciple and companion - it appears to be a hymn to the intoxicating pleasures of everyday life, truly appreciable only by someone close to death, for whom each breath is miraculous. It speaks of sensations s...

Nobel Prize–winning writer André Gide marks his voyage toward self-discovery in this imaginative allegorical workWhen Urien and his sailing companions begin their voyage, it is to places unknown and, perhaps, only dreamed. This allegorical masterpiece from André Gide, a key figure of French letters, deftly illustrates the techniques and doctrine of the Symbolist movement—and the dual nature of Gide's own psyche. Written at a crucial time in his artistic development...