THE JOURNALS OF ANDRE GIDE, Vol. II

The second portion of the important translation of Justice O'Brien of Gide's amazing notebooks, with the third volume still to appear, this covers the years from 1914-1929. The volume opens with Gide's notes on his, to him, disappointing Turkish journey. But he is soon plunged in medias res of World War I and his notes until 1916 record his extremely fine work in the war. Then Gide returns to his country home and his literary work- and period in which he wrote The Counterfeiters, rose to fame- and scandal. His notes are enlightening in regard to his wife, his relations with young men, his association with fellow artists (Proust, Valery, etc.). Notable also are his portraits of political figures such as Blum, his literary criticism, religious questionings, and jottings for his novels on which he relied in arid periods. Twisted, perverse, complex as he is, these journals reveal an unforgettable picture of a man of burning energy and great intellectual gifts, the man who for thirty years exercised an incalculable influence on Europe's literature. But it is not insignificant that Gide himself confesses that nothing in life seems real to him, that he is always the amused onlooker. So- to the not inconsiderable number of Gide cultists this book will be a bible. And to all persons interested in the history of phenomena of 20th century literature, it is an amazing revelation. Caviar, however, to the general.