Journals of André Gide, Vol. Ii

THE second volume of Gide’s Journals — the first was published last summer — ranges from his forty-fifth to his fifty-eighth year and covers the period 1914 through 1927. The war years are among the less interesting in the Journals, the nine following are among the most fascinating. It was then that Gide published The Counterfeiters and his autobiography. Si Le Grain Ne Meurt, and became the dominant figure in French letters. As in all of Gide’s work, the heart of this volume is his unending quest for values, his remorseless self-exploration. Justin O’Brien has done a fine job of translation.