Gide, André

(1869-1951)

   writer

   Descended on his mother's side from the Catholic bourgeoisie of normandy and on his father's from a Protestant family of Languedoc, André Gide was born in Paris, where he was educated and raised by his strict mother. His novels, plays, and autobiographical works are known for their exhaustive analysis of individual efforts at self-realization and rigid ethical concepts. in his first book, Les cahiers d'André Walter (1891), he described the religious and romantic idealism of an unhappy youth. it is also considered a symbolist work, as is his Le Traité du Narcisse (1891) and La Tentative amoureuse ou le Traité du vain désir (1893). His later works were then devoted to examining the problem of individual freedom and responsibility from several points of view. L'Immoraliste (1902) and La Porte étroite (1909) are studies of individual ethical concepts in conflict with conventional morality. in Les Caves du Vatican (1914) and La Symphonie pastorale (1919), which was later made into a motion picture, Gide deals with the issues of love and responsibility and the impossibility of complete personal freedom. Gide's preoccupation with individual moral responsibility led him to seek public office. After serving in various municipal posts in Normandy, he became a special envoy of the colonial ministry (1925-26) and later wrote two works denouncing the excesses of colonialism. Both books, Voyage au Congo (1927) and Retour du Tchad (1927), were instrumental in achieving reforms in French colonial laws. in the 1930s, Gide expressed admiration for the Soviet system, but after a visit to the USSR, he wrote of his disillusionment in Retour de l'URSS (1936) before breaking completely with the communists. Many of Gide's critical studies appeared in La Nouvelle Revue française, a literary periodical that he helped to found in 1909. it would become a dominant influence in French intellectual circles. Besides his verse dramas, Gide translated Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and Hamlet, as well as works by William Blake and Walt Whitman. In an autobiographical work, Si le grain ne meurt (1920 and 1924), and in an early essay, Corydon (1911), he made a courageous statement of his homosexuality. His Journals (four volumes, 1939-51) and Correspondances (with Francis jammes, 1948; paul claudel, 1949; and Rainer Maria Rilke, posthumous, 1952; and paul valéry, posthumous, 1955) brought worldwide critical interest. Gide received the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947.