Synopsis
“The humanist has four leading characteristics—curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and a belief in the human race—and all four are present in Gide. . . . The humanist of our age.” —E. M. Forster
A Penguin Classic
In The Immoralist, André Gide presents the confessional account of a man seeking the truth of his own nature. The story’s protagonist, Michel, knows nothing about love when he marries the gentle Marceline out of duty to his father. On the couple’s honeymoon to Tunisia, Michel becomes very ill, and during his recovery he meets a young Arab boy whose radiant health and beauty captivate him. An awakening for him both sexually and morally, Michel discovers a new freedom in seeking to live according to his own desires. But, as he also discovers, freedom can be a burden. A frank defense of homosexuality and a challenge to prevailing ethical concepts, The Immoralist is a literary landmark, marked by Gide’s masterful, pure, simple style.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Recommendations
Generating recommendations…
Our AI is preparing recommendations for The Immoralist. This usually takes under a minute.
About Andre Gide
Andre Gide
1869–1951
André Paul Guillaume Gide (22 novembre 1869 – 19 février 1951) était un écrivain et auteur français dont les œuvres couvraient une grande variété de styles et de sujets. Il a reçu le prix Nobel de littérature en 1947. La carrière de Gide s'étendait de ses débuts dans le mouvement symboliste à la critique de l'impérialisme entre les deux guerres mondiales. Auteur de plus de 50 livres, il a été décrit dans sa nécrologie du *New York Times* comme « le plus grand homme de lettres contemporain de France » et « jugé le plus grand écrivain français de ce siècle par les connaisseurs littéraires ». ---------- André Paul Guillaume Gide (22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French writer and author whose writing spanned a wide variety of styles and topics. He was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gide's career ranged from his beginnings in the symbolist movement to criticising imperialism between the two World Wars. The author of more than 50 books, he was described in his *New York Times* obituary as "France's greatest contemporary man of letters" and "judged the greatest French writer of this century by the literary cognoscenti."
View author page