Strait Is the Gate
by:
André Gide (author)
Dorothy Bussy (author)
A delicate boy growing up in Paris, Jerome Palissier spends many summers at his uncle's house in the Normandy countryside, where the whole world seems 'steeped in azure'. There he falls deeply in love with his cousin Alissa and she with him. But gradually Alissa becomes convinced that Jerome's...
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A delicate boy growing up in Paris, Jerome Palissier spends many summers at his uncle's house in the Normandy countryside, where the whole world seems 'steeped in azure'. There he falls deeply in love with his cousin Alissa and she with him. But gradually Alissa becomes convinced that Jerome's love for her is endangering his soul. In the interests of his salvation, she decides to suppress everything that is beautiful in herself - in both mind and body. A devastating exploration of aestheticism taken to extremes, "Strait is the Gate" is a novel of haunting beauty that stimulates the mind and the emotions.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780141185248 (0141185244)
Publish date: February 22nd 2001
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Pages no: 128
Edition language: English
Category:
Classics,
Novels,
Love,
Literature,
European Literature,
Cultural,
Literary Fiction,
20th Century,
Religion,
Roman,
France,
French Literature
One of my favourite books. I only know of one English translation. Would love to read another English version if it exists.
Gide said that he meant this book to be treated as one half of a pair, together with L'Immoraliste. I took him at his word and read them in rapid succession. By the way, I should say this was atypical - I'm a "when all else fails, read the instructions" kind of person, but I found both books togethe...
Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored. Sure he can write. He writes like God's right hand, he writes like the detail of the wing of an angel, he writes like water. But he's very, very, very boring.