Beautifully written and depressing. The kind of book that is full of paragraphs and sentences that you read and reread (like "Nothing is more fatal to happiness than the memory of happiness"). Up until the last part of the book, though, I didn't really see the hedonism of the immoralist the way I expected to. Leaving your studies? Not enjoying social gatherings? These may have been earth-shattering in 19th century France, but certainly not in my mind as I read it today. rejecting his scholarly training? Big deal.
In the end, then, which I think of as the "reverse trip" (his honeymoon trip, backwards - in several respects), I was surprised by the self-absorption and lack of care for Marceline. The entire second trip was frustrating and depressing. Was this the "lesson to be learned" - you can't dismiss societal norms and morals, as doing so includes within it lack of care for others? I don't think that I agree with Gide here. For me, just as Michel's behavior in France didn't seem extreme enough to justify the "immoralist" label, so was his behavior outside of France too much of an extreme.