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Autumn Leaves
This collection of reflective essays forms a "spiritual autobiography" of André Gide, a key figure of French letters André Gide, a literary and intellectual giant of twentieth-century France, mines his memories and personal observations in this collection of essays. Gide's reflections and commentary masterfully showcase his delicate writing style and evocative sensibility, yielding new insights on writers such as Goethe and contemporaries Joseph Conrad, Nicolas Poussin, Arthur Rimbaud, and Paul-Marie Verlaine. Through it all, Gide skillfully investigates humanity's contradictory nature and struggles to resolve the moral, political, and religious conflicts inherent in daily life.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1950
About the author
André Gide
647 books1,604 followersDiaries and novels, such as
The Immoralist
(1902) and
Lafcadio's Adventures
(1914), of noted French writer André Gide examine alienation and the drive for individuality in an often disapproving society; he won the Nobel Prize of 1947 for literature.
André Paul Guillaume Gide authored books. From beginnings in the symbolist movement, career of Gide ranged to anticolonialism between the two World Wars.
Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide exposes the conflict and eventual reconciliation to public view between the two sides of his personality; a straight-laced education and a narrow social moralism split apart these sides. One can see work of Gide as an investigation of freedom and empowerment in the face of moralistic and puritan constraints, and it gravitates around his continuous effort to achieve intellectual honesty. His self-exploratory texts reflect his search of full self, even to the point of owning sexual nature without betraying values at the same time. After his voyage of 1936 to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the same ethos informs his political activity, as his repudiation of Communism suggests.
Chinese 安德烈·纪德
André Paul Guillaume Gide authored books. From beginnings in the symbolist movement, career of Gide ranged to anticolonialism between the two World Wars.
Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide exposes the conflict and eventual reconciliation to public view between the two sides of his personality; a straight-laced education and a narrow social moralism split apart these sides. One can see work of Gide as an investigation of freedom and empowerment in the face of moralistic and puritan constraints, and it gravitates around his continuous effort to achieve intellectual honesty. His self-exploratory texts reflect his search of full self, even to the point of owning sexual nature without betraying values at the same time. After his voyage of 1936 to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the same ethos informs his political activity, as his repudiation of Communism suggests.
Chinese 安德烈·纪德
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 28, 2015
What a thoroughly charming book. I picked this up on a whim as I was passing through Butte, Montana. The name captured my imagination as I was browsing through the classics section of a used bookstore. It is a collection of writing by Andre Gide that are taken from selected publications mostly about his memories of and musing about other writers.
Even when the reader is not familiar with the author being discussed, Gide is entertaining; though there are many well known authors within the texts such as Goethe, Wilde, Mann, Voltaire, Conrad, Rimbaud, Hugo, Poussin, Camus, Nietzsche, etc. I found Gide writings about his childhood and life in Northern Africa to be particularly poignant although he does enter into some serious philosophical discussions in the latter-half of the book that shouldn’t be dismissed.
I was particularly upset and heartbroken by the unintentional miseries inflicted on Dintiki, Gide’s pet Potto (similar to a Slow Loris). I do not believe Gide could have been aware of it at the time but he noted, “He begged for my caress, raising his little arms up very high to invite me to scratch his armpit; and he even crossed his two hands above his head with the gesture of a ballerina…. Then, suddenly he began to hate me; two different times, he bit me cruelly…” I cannot be sure for a Potto, but the raising up of the arms above the head is a sign of distress in a Slow Loris and I believe the same to be true for a Potto as Dintiki died shortly after this incident. Gide admitted that the nocturnal creature did not like harsh sunlight and often hid in his shirt during the day and when locked up at night. The animal’s diet was mishandled as well, creating many problems for the poor creature. At one point Dintiki appears to suffer from a heat stroke but was revived after nearly an hour of resuscitation. I do not believe Gide was intentionally trying to harm the animal and I do believe he genuinely felt affection towards it but it is impossible to read this section of the book without feeling heartbroken for the poor creature taken from its forest home.
Other than the unfortunate essay on Gide’s pet Potto, Fallen Leaves is a wonderful collection and worth reading if you are interested in one of the great authors of this period and his thoughts on his contemporaries. The texts create a nice cross-section of Gide’s thoughts and writing style. His essays on god and Christianity are particularly interesting as they run quit counter to orthodox views.
Even when the reader is not familiar with the author being discussed, Gide is entertaining; though there are many well known authors within the texts such as Goethe, Wilde, Mann, Voltaire, Conrad, Rimbaud, Hugo, Poussin, Camus, Nietzsche, etc. I found Gide writings about his childhood and life in Northern Africa to be particularly poignant although he does enter into some serious philosophical discussions in the latter-half of the book that shouldn’t be dismissed.
I was particularly upset and heartbroken by the unintentional miseries inflicted on Dintiki, Gide’s pet Potto (similar to a Slow Loris). I do not believe Gide could have been aware of it at the time but he noted, “He begged for my caress, raising his little arms up very high to invite me to scratch his armpit; and he even crossed his two hands above his head with the gesture of a ballerina…. Then, suddenly he began to hate me; two different times, he bit me cruelly…” I cannot be sure for a Potto, but the raising up of the arms above the head is a sign of distress in a Slow Loris and I believe the same to be true for a Potto as Dintiki died shortly after this incident. Gide admitted that the nocturnal creature did not like harsh sunlight and often hid in his shirt during the day and when locked up at night. The animal’s diet was mishandled as well, creating many problems for the poor creature. At one point Dintiki appears to suffer from a heat stroke but was revived after nearly an hour of resuscitation. I do not believe Gide was intentionally trying to harm the animal and I do believe he genuinely felt affection towards it but it is impossible to read this section of the book without feeling heartbroken for the poor creature taken from its forest home.
Other than the unfortunate essay on Gide’s pet Potto, Fallen Leaves is a wonderful collection and worth reading if you are interested in one of the great authors of this period and his thoughts on his contemporaries. The texts create a nice cross-section of Gide’s thoughts and writing style. His essays on god and Christianity are particularly interesting as they run quit counter to orthodox views.
December 15, 2014
Gide's memoirs and essays read as elegently as his art. The anecdotes on Jarry, Bock and Artaud. His refelctions on Goethe, Rimbaud, and Lautreamont. A beautifully candid read by an essential thinker. One forgets how truly connected he was with those revolutionaries of the early 20th century, far too overshadowed by the existentialists (though not to knock them)to come. His "Leaves" and "Autumn Leaves" are refreshing and make one remember how cogency and moderacy in issues is far more penetrating than any of the fanatacism and idealism that we find today.
June 30, 2024
I have not read Mr. Gide's work before, and I think that starting with this essay collection was not the best introduction for me. Now I need to read one of his novels or some of his longer form literary criticism, maybe his writing on Dostoyevsky. In this book, Mr. Gide comes across as a decent person and a thoughtful observer of art and society, but not at the level of brilliance that I hoped for and half expected. I like how he tries to find the good in everything. Even when he writes about people with whom he disagrees, he is able to find positive things to say and to avoid going on the attack. That stands in refreshing contrast with the low level of polarized attack discourse that we commonly see in public forums today. My favorites in this collection were the essays on Conrad and Paul Valery which glow with personal warmth and affection. I also liked the essay on the little lemur that Mr. Gide brings back from Africa as a pet, which sadly, but not surprisingly sickens and dies. Again, you can feel how much he loves the little creature, and at the same time he feels an appropriate guilt for snatching it from its natural environment and enslaving it as a pet.
May 17, 2017
"In the great shipwreck of time, it is by their skin that masterpieces float."
July 23, 2015
This is a fantastically entertaining memoir with a colorful cast of characters (Mallarme, Valery, Verlaine, Thomas Mann, et al.).
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews