TWO SYMPHONIES

Combined in one volume, these two short novels make their reappearance; Isabella, which is relatively little known, and the Symphonic Pastorale, by now familiar to many. The first, gothic in mood, also unrestrained in its romanticism, tells of a young man's obsession, more out of love than curiosity, with Isabella who had disappeared from the chateau where he was staying, leaving only her little boy behind. With the slowly acquired evidence of her desertion, her disgrace, he returns later to find the final ruin she brings to all around her. The second, the parable of the lost sheep retold in the story of a pastor's love for his blind pupil, is a drama of conscience and one of Gide's classical achievements... The resurgent interest in Gide today has increased the receptivity for these which are- in any case- accessible to a wider public than the Journals.