The works of the French author André Gide (1869-1951) reveal his passionate revolt against the restraints and conventions inherited from 19th-century France. He sought to uncover the authentic self beneath its contradictory masks.

André Gide was born in Paris on Nov. 22, 1869, to Paul Gide, a professor of law at the Sorbonne, and his wife, Juliette, both of the Protestant upper middle class. After the death of his father when André was 11, the boy was dominated by his mother's love and grew up in a largely feminine environment. His fragile health and nervous temperament affected his education, which oscillated between formal schooling and a combination of travel and private tutoring. At 15 he vowed a lifelong spiritual love to his cousin, Madeleine Rondeaux.

Symbolist Period

In 1891 Gide published his first book, Les Cahiers d'André Walter (The Notebooks of André Walter), in which dream is preferred...