L'immoraliste / La porte étroite
| Author | André Gide |
| Vote | 2/10 |
| Reviewed on | 2018-08-25 |
| Read in | French |
This edition contains two works from the same author, and I didn’t like either.
L’immoraliste is the story of a young guy, freshly married, that gets tuberculosis and experiences a change in his consciousness in the process of healing from it. It is told in a very dramatic and delicate tone, and as a modern reader, I had started expecting too much immorality. None of it. I couldn’t understand its value.
I haven’t decided yet if La porte étroite is worse or better than the other. It tells of one Jérôme who’s in love with his cousin, Alissa, who reciprocates. But she is some kind of fanatical religious who wants to attain the supreme virtue, so she pushes him away, even though keeping a large correspondence with him throughout her life. And that’s it. It is the story of this aborted love.
It’s lucky that I’ve also read La symphonie pastorale, otherwise my opinion of this writer would have been very bad.