“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...

The Immoralist by André Gide is a profound and psychologically intense novel that explores the struggle between personal desire and moral constraint. Through the intimate portrait of a young man's inner awakening, the story examines how illness, recovery, and self-discovery can radically reshape one's understanding of identity, freedom, and responsibility. The narrative follows Michel, a scholar who, after surviving a serious illness, embarks on a journey of self-exploration that leads him...

"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...

Published in 1902, André Gide's The Immoralist is a deliberately unsettling confession in which Michel, a cultivated French scholar, recounts the illness, marriage, and spiritual crisis that awaken him to sensual experience. As his physical recovery becomes inseparable from a rejection of inherited moral, religious, and bourgeois restraints, the novella probes whether liberation is genuinely emancipatory or merely another form of self-absorption. Gide's lucid, restrained prose contrasts wi...

The wealthy Zeus drops a handkerchief in the street, and whoever picks it up must give him the name and address of one other person.That person is then rewarded with untold riches, while the finder of the handkerchief receives a punch in the face.This novella, a work of refined intellectual imagination, is a satirical discussion of man's search for individual values.'Prometheus Illbound' will delight fans of Gide's other notable works, such as ´The Fruits of the Ear...

These three texts explore the power and potential of music by a renowned musicologist, a celebrated composer, and a Nobel Prize–winning author.Jan Holcman's The Legacy of Chopin is a comprehensive study of the great composer's views on music—including pianism, composition, pedagogy, criticism, and more. Drawing on extensive research from a wide range of sources, Holcman provides essential historical and musicological context for Frederic Chopin's reference...

This collection of reflective essays forms a "spiritual autobiography" of André Gide, a key figure of French lettersAndré Gide, a literary and intellectual giant of twentieth-century France, mines his memories and personal observations in this collection of essays. Gide's reflections and commentary masterfully showcase his delicate writing style and evocative sensibility, yielding new insights on writers such as Goethe and contemporaries Joseph Con...

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 ...

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...

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...

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 ...

In 1890, during the pontificate of Leo XIII, Anthime Armand-Dubois, unbeliever and freemason, visited Rome in order to consult Dr. X, the celebrated specialist for rheumatic complaints. “What!” cried Julius de Baraglioul, his brother-in-law. “Is it your body you are going to treat in Rome? Pray Heaven you may realise when you get there that your soul is in far worse case.” To which Armand-Dubois replied in a tone of excessive commiseration: “My poor dear fellow, just look at my shoulders.”...