Madeleine is the story of a great writer's marriage, a deeply disturbing
account of André Gide's feelings towards his beloved and long-suffering
wife. It was a relationship which Gide exalted--he termed it the central
drama of his existence--yet deliberately shrouded in mystery. This was
no ordinary marriage. Madeleine Rondeaux, two years older than her
cousin André Gide, became his wife after Gide's first visit to Algeria.
In his Journal, Gide refers to her as Emmanuèle or as Em. Only in this
book, published a few months after his death, does Gide call her by her
real name and painfully reveal the nature of their life together. All of
Gide's vast work may be viewed as a confession, impelled by his need to
write what he believed to be true about himself. In Madeleine this act
of confession reaches a crowning point. It is a complex tale by a
complex man about a complex relationship. "Ranks among the masterpieces
of Gide's vibrating prose. It is also the most tragic personal document
to have emanated from Gide's pen."--New York Times.