This debut work lays bare the early brilliance and philosophical
conflicts of André Gide, a towering figure in French literature.
André Gide, one of the masters of French literature, captures the
essence of the philosophical Romantic in this profoundly personal first
novel, completed when he was just twenty years old. Drawing heavily on
his religious upbringing and private journals, The Notebooks of André
Walter - with its "white" and "black" halves - tells the story of a
young man pining for his forbidden love, cousin Emmanuelle. But his
evocative memories and devoted yearnings, carefully crafted through
quotations and diary excerpts, lead only to madness and death.
Annotated with footnotes from translator and scholar Wade Baskin, this
story within a story offers a unique portrait of the artist as a young
man, as it reveals the key themes of self-analysis and moral conscience
that Gide explores in his mature works.