Andre Gide

A Life in the Present

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by Alan Sheridan

Harvard University Press

Due/Published September 2000, 272 pages, paper

ISBN 0674003934

New in paper (F00)

You might remember Sheridan as author of Michel Foucault: The Will to Truth. Here, he gives us a literary biography of Gide, a man whose life provides a unique perspective on our century, an idea of what it was like for one person to live through unprecedented technological change, economic growth and collapse, the rise of socialism and fascism, two world wars, a new concern for the colonial peoples and for women, and the astonishing hold of Rome and Moscow over intellectuals.

Following Gide from his first forays among the Symbolists through his sexual and political awakenings to his worldwide fame as a writer, sage, and commentator on his age, Sheridan conveys the drama of what was probably one of the most interesting lives our century has seen. Gide knew and corresponded with many of the major literary figures of his day, from Mallarmé to Oscar Wilde. Though a Communist, his critical account of Soviet Russia in Return from the USSR earned him the enmity of the Left. A lifelong advocate of moral and political freedom and justice, he was a proscribed writer on the Vatican's infamous "Index." Self-published most of his life, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947, at the age of 77. An avowed homosexual, he nonetheless married his cousin, and though their marriage was unconsummated, at 53 he fathered a daughter for a friend.

Review

Andre Gide has the unique status of being banned by the Vatican, German-held France, the U.S.S.R, and also winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. As these “honors” suggest, Gide’s impact was felt not only on the literary scence but he also became an important voice in the political, social, and moral issues of the twentieth century. This immensely readable and well-written work has the task of making sense of Gide’s work and influence and a life that can truly be said to merit over 700 pages. Sheridan follows Gide’s life chronologically beginning with his upbringing in a French protestant family. He then traces Gide’s introduction into the French literary scene, immersion in with Mallarme’s circle of Symbolist poets, and slow rise as a major voice in French Literature. Sheridan does an excellent job of recreating the personalities and atmosphere of Parisian literary life in the first part of the century as well as Gide’s often tumultuous personal and romantic life. Gide had an unconsumated marriage with his first-cousin and early in his life had several homosexual affairs that often evolved into rather stormy love triangles. Gide’s Corydon, an examination of homosexuality, was both bold for its time and caused him a great deal of public scorn. Sheridan also examines Gide’s political views which were defined by his trip to Africa and horror over the exploitative practices of the rubber companies. Later he became a member of the French Communist Party, visited the U.S.S.R but later denounced Communism. Sheridan’s excels at demonstrating how Gide’s extraordinary life informed his writing and is a fittingly monumental work to one of France’s most important voices of the twentieth century.