Author: Andre Gide
Profile: Andre Paul Guillaume Gide also known André Gide was a French author, novelist, dramatist and essayist. He was born in Paris, French Empire and died in Paris, France. Madeleine Rondeaux Gide has been his spouse. His career extended from a beginning in the symbolist movement to the advent of anticolonialism between the two World Wars. He has authored more than 50 books.
Writing style: Andre Gide is popularly known for his autobiographical works as well as fiction. The conflict and reconciliation of the two sides of his personality (characterized by a transgressive sexual adventurousness and a Protestant austerity) have been exposed by Gide eventually with moralistic and strict educiaton which has been useful to set at odds. Andre Gide’s work can be observed as an investigation of empowerment and freedom in the face of puritanical and moralistic constraints and centres on his ongoing effort to attain intellectual honesty. His search on ways of being oneself fully, are reflected in his texts which are self-exploratory and includes the sexual nature of ones self without betraying values of oneself at the same time. The very same ethos shaped his activities in politics as seen by his repudiation of communism aftr his voyage to Russia in 1936.
Published Texts:
Novels, novellas, Stories
1981 – The Notebooks of Andre Walter (a semi-autobiographical novel)
1893 – The Voyage of Urien (a Symbolist novella)
1895 – Marshlands
1896 – El Hadj (a tale of nineteen pages)
1899 – Prometheus III-Bound (a lighthearted satiric novella)
1902 – The Immoralist
1907 – The Return of the Prodigal Son
1909 – Strait Is the Gate
1911 – Isabelle
1914 – The Vatican Cellars
1919 – The Pastoral Symphony
1925 – The Counterfeiters
1929 – The School for Wives
1930 – Robert
1936 – Genevieve
1946 – Theseus
2002 – La Ramier (published posthumously)
Poetical and lyrical works
1892 – The Poems of Andre Walter
1893 – The Attempt at Love or the Treatise of Vain Desire
1897 – Earthy Food (Les nourritures terrestres)
1913 – Lyrical Offering
1935 – Les nouvelles nourritures (a reprise of certain of the major themes of the first Nourritures
Awards and Acknowledgements:
1947 – Nobel Prize in Liteature
Andre Gide has been described as ‘France’s greatest contemporary man of letters, by the New York Times at the time of his death.
The literary cognoscenti have also judged him as the greatet French writer of the century.
