Gide, André << zheed, ahn DRAY >> (1869-1951), a French author, won the 1947 Nobel Prize in literature. He had a strong impact on literature in France and other countries because of his many friendships with writers and his work as cofounder in 1909 of The New French Revue, an influential literary magazine.
Gide was born in Paris on Nov. 22, 1869, and was raised in a rigid Protestant environment. During a trip to North Africa when he was 24, Gide realized that he was gay. From then on, the themes of his works alternated between the extremes of his puritanical upbringing and his sensual feelings. For example, his story The Immoralist (1902) stresses total individual freedom, and Strait Is the Gate (1909) emphasizes suppression of physical desire.
Influenced by the novels of the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky and the ideas of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, Gide created characters who express individual choices despite society’s moral constraints. The gratuitous act, which is seemingly without motivation, is one example of free will. But Gide recognized that all acts are psychologically motivated.
Gide’s style is noted for its simplicity, clarity, and occasional irony. He referred to his fiction as recits (tales), with the exception of The Counterfeiters (1926), which he called a novel. The central character of this work is a novelist writing a novel about a novelist who is writing a novel and theorizing about his art. Gide’s recits include The Pastoral Symphony (1919) and Theseus (1946), his last work, which sums up his life and beliefs. Gide’s Journals (1889-1949) and correspondence also provide insight into his life and work. Gide wrote several plays, including Oedipus (1931). He died on Feb. 19, 1951.
