This comprehensive exploration of curiosity in the fiction and life-writing of André Gide (1869-1951) is an important modernist contribution to the field of curiosity in literature and cultural studies more broadly. Curiosity was a credo for Gide. By observing the world and then manifesting in writing these observations, he stimulates the curiosity of readers, conceived as virtual conduits of a curiosity once his own. Using a thematic structure of sexual, scientific and writerly curiosity, this volume identifies processes of curiosity in the life-writing (including the travel-writing) which illuminate processes in the fiction, and vice versa. Theories of fetishism, gender and sexuality are applied to Gide's corpus to illustrate his championing of a masculine curiosity of enlightenment and adventure over a feminised 'curiosité-défaillance' of disobedience and harm, and to explore objects eliciting his incuriosity. Gide's creativity is nourished by his curiosity, as close readings of his work informed by Melanie Klein's psychoanalytic writing on epistemophilia reveal. Curiosity is a rewarding, non-reductionist perspective from which the exceptional variety of Gide's subject matter, style and genre can be more coherently understood. Research draws principally on the six Pléiade volumes of Gide's oeuvre, published 1996-2009.

Sheridan presents a literary biography of one of the most important writers of the 20th century--an intimate portrait of the reluctantly public man, whose work was deeply and inextricably entangled with his life. 35 halftones.

Andre Gide, winner of the 1947 Nobel Prize, is a revered figure in French literature. The quirky, intimate and fascinating portrait drawn in these notes' can be relished by someone who has never heard of, or even read, andre gide. Gide's friendship with Roger Martin Du Gard lasted over 38 years. In his journal, Gide wrote of his friend, 'with him i can let myself go and be perfectly natural. There is nobody whose presence now brings me greater comfort.' A beautiful collection of conversations on which we can eavesdrop.'

Andre Gide's lifelong fascination with the conventions of society led naturally to a strong interest in France's judicial system. At the age of sixty Gide published Judge Not, a collection of writings detailing his own experiences with the law as well as his thoughts on truth, justice, and judgment.Gide's obsession with crime and punishment was not just a morbid hobby; rather, it struck at the heart of his themes as a writer. In the literary tradition of Dostoyevsky and Conrad, Gide frequently used criminals as central characters to explore human nature and the individual's place in society.In the first essay in Judge Not, "A Memoir of the Assize Court," Gide writes about his experience as a juror in several trials, including that of an arsonist (Gide actively sought jury duty, so great was his interest in legal matters). In "The Redureau Case" and "The Confined Woman of Poitiers" Gide analyzes two famous crimes of his day, an inexplicable slaughter by Marcel Redureau, a docile fifteen-year-old vineyard laborer who violently murdered his employer's family, and the respected Monnier family's confinement of their daughter, Blanche. Both cases fascinated Gide--elements of each would appear in his later fiction--and he looks closely at the facts of each as they came out in court. In addition, in "News Items" Gide analyzes the way newspapers present crime narratives, drawing from the hundreds of press clippings he collected throughout his life.Andr Gide (1869-1951) wrote The Counterfeiters; several brief works of fiction including Strait Is the Gate and The Immoralist; a number of plays; and several works of literary criticism. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1947 and in 1950 was made an honorary corresponding member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.Benjamin Ivry has translated from the French Vanished Splendors: The Memoirs of Balthus, Raoul Dufy's My Doctor, Wine, and Jules Verne's Magellania, among other books. He is the author of the poetry collection Paradise for the Portuguese Queen as well as the biographies Francis Poulenc, Arthur Rimbaud, and Maurice Ravel: A Life.

Arguably the most influential French writer of the early twentieth century, André Gide is a paradigmatic figure whose World War II writings offer an exemplary reflection of the challenges facing a leading writer in a time of national collapse. Tracing Gide's circuitous "intellectual itinerary" from the fall of France through the postwar purge, this book examines the ambiguous role of France's senior man of letters during the Second World War. The writer's intricate maneuverings offer privileged insights into three issues of broad significance: the relationship of literature and politics in France during World War II, the repressions and repositionings that continue to fuel controversy about the period, and the role of public intellectuals in times of national crisis. With the exception of the early wartime Journal, Gide's publications during France's "dark years" have received little critical attention. This book scrutinizes the entire wartime oeuvre in depth, tracing the evolution of Gide's political views and, most importantly, reading the wartime texts against each other. It is the interplay among these texts that reveals the full complexity of Gide's political positionings and the rhetorical brilliance he deployed to redress his tarnished image.