If it Die

"If It Die" is a record of Gide's childhood and early manhood, up until his engagement to his cousin. Written twenty years afterwards, it is a deliberately uninhibited and revealing exercise as well as a masterpiece of French prose, thus fulfilling the two criteria Gide set himself - to satisfy the demands of truth without neglecting the claims of art. It was said that in Gide 'les extrmes touchent', a predisposition that was to characterize all his work, and these antitheses are clearly acknowledged and used in his narrative in order to add extra layers of resonance and meaning. At the same time "If It Die" is a delightful and memorable account by itself of childhood, of friendships and travels, and of sexual awakening.