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If It Die...An Autobiography
by
André Gide
,
Dorothy Bussy
This is the major autobiographical statement from Nobel laureate André Gide. In the events and musings recorded here we find the seeds of those themes that obsessed him throughout his career and imbued his classic novels
The Immoralist
and
The Counterfeiters
.
Gide led a life of uncompromising self-scrutiny, and his literary works resembled moments of that life. With If It ...more
Gide led a life of uncompromising self-scrutiny, and his literary works resembled moments of that life. With If It ...more
Paperback
,
310 pages
Published
by Vintage Books
(first published 1920)
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Gideiana & the Money Shot : 1947 Nobel winner Gide, after recalling childhood, schooldays and aesthetic growth among friends Pierre Louys and Mallarme, delivers. "My joy was unbounded...I cannot imagine it greater, even if love had been added." Never confuse, as do many, desire with love. That little Arab boy left him in a state of "passionate jubilation."
Published in 1920, two decades after "The Immoralist," Gide offers his back-story. Gide, a founder in 1909 of the influential Le Nouvel Re ...more
Published in 1920, two decades after "The Immoralist," Gide offers his back-story. Gide, a founder in 1909 of the influential Le Nouvel Re ...more
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I find the whole genre of biography and autobiography fairly boring, but this was kinda fun. The first half was pretty dry, but really established Gide's character as a child (dreamer). The second half was a lot more interesting. I knew from checking wikipedia (after infering it from my read of the Immoralist) that Gide was into boys, but it's quite another thing to read about him picking them up with Oscar Wilde.
Confieso que desde que un alumno de Erasmus robó este libro de la biblioteca de la universidad de Alicante, tenía ganas de estrujarlo entre mis manos. Y aunque no me ha decepcionado, la espera no es que haya valido demasiado la pena. André Gide es un narrador mesurado y a quien no le preocupa caer simpático, cosa que se agradece, pero tiene, a mi parecer, la distorsionada idea de que a sus lectores les interesa tanto su infancia como a él. Pues no, hijo mío. Hay anécdotas casi divertidas, otras
...more
The events described wouldn't be nearly as interesting if written by a mediocre writer, but gide isn't that. He goes about his story, descibing his life by impression and memories, in no particular order other than how important they were to him at the time. It reads beautifully. It's worth reading steadily through, if you want the full impression. Otherwise, it's easy to lose track of what he's been expanding on.
“No busco la complicación; está en mi. Me traiciona todo gesto en el que no reconozco todas mis contradicciones.” Si la semilla no muere es un texto autobiográfico en donde Gide hace una reflexión exhaustiva sobre su infancia, adolescencia y adultez temprana, con un mirada a veces indulgente, a veces severa, el texto se convierte en una ventana a través de la cual es posible echar un vistazo a una vida marcada por una educación puritana sumamente conservadora en el París de finales del siglo XIX
...more
I have a fondness for autobiographies. Gide's autobiography is like very slow motion in the first parts that he recalls his "civilized" family environment. While describing his music tutors, the school system, mother-son-god tension... the book seemed "OK! ...but not a great one".
Later on, after the trip to Africa (still not sure if it was Africa but it was like "OK the author is from the occident, and the rest is from the rest"), as Gide (the character) starts to face with his experiences and ...more
Later on, after the trip to Africa (still not sure if it was Africa but it was like "OK the author is from the occident, and the rest is from the rest"), as Gide (the character) starts to face with his experiences and ...more
Andre Gide is an author’s author. Winner of the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature, and a favourite of notable scribes like Yukio Mishima and Donald Richie, Gide is one of the fathers of the modern confessional autobiography, but outside of the academy and academia, this doesn't make him an interesting read.
If It Die is concerned to the point of myopia with the triviality of life. Fleeting thoughts, grasped at impressions, the flotsam and jetsam of waking consciousness, If It Die is akin to reading ...more
If It Die is concerned to the point of myopia with the triviality of life. Fleeting thoughts, grasped at impressions, the flotsam and jetsam of waking consciousness, If It Die is akin to reading ...more
Rating this book with some number of stars is nonsensical- it is not a matter of stars.
Many of the events and ideas expressed here are essentially the same as those in The Immoralist . But as a memoir, it contains more historically-interesting details. There is a modern trend of writing histories of ordinary people, as opposed to the histories of kings and presidents. I think that's a great idea, and now realize that some of the same information (and also a source for such histories) is to be fo ...more
Many of the events and ideas expressed here are essentially the same as those in The Immoralist . But as a memoir, it contains more historically-interesting details. There is a modern trend of writing histories of ordinary people, as opposed to the histories of kings and presidents. I think that's a great idea, and now realize that some of the same information (and also a source for such histories) is to be fo ...more
this is at the bottom of the pile of what Gide published. If it Die… has subjects and instances already covered in his major works, like Wilde, Immortalist and the journals. it took two attempts but i finished it. read the autobiography if you ran out of Gide material. but Gide does have good books concerning autobiographical instances. his Congo travels and book concerning his wife, i cannot recall the title, are worth reading. not this book though.
Andre Gide'i iç dünyasını ortaya saçan bir kitap. Oscar Wilde'la olan ahbaplığı da bonus.
در واقع کتاب اتوبیوگرافی ست اما نه یک اتوبیوگرافی کامل. ژید مقطعی از زندگی خودش رو به صورت وقایعی که بعضا ترتیب وقوع اونها رعایت نشده نشون داده که این برای من کسل کننده بود انقدر که فکر میکردم اگه در مورد زندگی آنا خدمتکارشون مطلبی میخوندم برام جذاب تر بود.
If It Die is well worth a read. If you happen across it, do not hesitate to pick it up. The prose is flowing and elegant and Gide plays lightly with language.
Full review HERE .
Full review HERE .
Possibly the most boring and self indulgent thing I've ever read. And I read the whole damn thing as well. The bits about botany are cool, and some of the stuff in Africa, but apart from that...bleuch.
اتوبیوگرافی نویسنده، آندره ژید در این کتاب واقعیات زندگی خود را بی پرده بیان کرده است. ا. شربیانی
Dreadfully choppy translation, must reread in French.
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André Paul Guillaume Gide was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947. Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism between the two World Wars.
Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide exposes to public view the conflict and eventual reconciliation between the two sides of his personality, s ...more
More about André Gide...
Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide exposes to public view the conflict and eventual reconciliation between the two sides of his personality, s ...more
“I am lost if I attempt to take count of chronology. When I think over the past, I am like a person whose eyes cannot properly measure distances and is liable to think things extremely remote which on examination prove to be quite near.”
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“Je suis un être de dialogue ; tout en moi combat et se contredit. Les Mémoires ne sont jamais qu'à demi sincères, si grand que soit le souci de vérité : tout est toujours plus compliqué qu'on ne le dit. Peut-être même approche-t-on de plus près la vérité dans le roman.”
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