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Urians reis
Nog voor Moerassen schreef Gide in 1893 Le voyage d'Urien.
Urians reis is een allegorisch verslag van een zeereis. Van de stilstaande, krioelende wateren van de Sargasso tot de bevroren Noordpool brengt Gide in proza de fantastische reis van het schip Orion en de seksuele en morele transformaties van de opvarenden in kaart. De verleidingen, het lijden en de omgeving van Urian en zijn metgezellen worden met een buitengewone overvloed aan details beschreven, maar de pelgrims zijn nooit zeker van de realiteit van hun ervaringen.
Voor Urian stond, zoals we nu weten, de jonge André Gide zelf model. Geschreven in de ban van de grote Franse symbolistische dichter Mallarmé, is de roman een illustratie van zowel de technieken als het esthetische credo van de symbolistische beweging. Hoewel vroeg in de carrière van deze Nobelprijswinnaar geschreven, wordt Urians reis nu beschouwd als een belangrijk werk, waarin de krachtige spanning tussen seksualiteit en moraal die Gide in zijn bekendere latere romans zou bezighouden, wordt verwoord.
Urians reis is een allegorisch verslag van een zeereis. Van de stilstaande, krioelende wateren van de Sargasso tot de bevroren Noordpool brengt Gide in proza de fantastische reis van het schip Orion en de seksuele en morele transformaties van de opvarenden in kaart. De verleidingen, het lijden en de omgeving van Urian en zijn metgezellen worden met een buitengewone overvloed aan details beschreven, maar de pelgrims zijn nooit zeker van de realiteit van hun ervaringen.
Voor Urian stond, zoals we nu weten, de jonge André Gide zelf model. Geschreven in de ban van de grote Franse symbolistische dichter Mallarmé, is de roman een illustratie van zowel de technieken als het esthetische credo van de symbolistische beweging. Hoewel vroeg in de carrière van deze Nobelprijswinnaar geschreven, wordt Urians reis nu beschouwd als een belangrijk werk, waarin de krachtige spanning tussen seksualiteit en moraal die Gide in zijn bekendere latere romans zou bezighouden, wordt verwoord.
101 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1893
4 people are currently reading
153 people want to read
About the author
André Gide
841 books1,740 followersDiaries and novels, such as
The Immoralist
(1902) and
Lafcadio's Adventures
(1914), of noted French writer André Gide examine alienation and the drive for individuality in an often disapproving society; he won the Nobel Prize of 1947 for literature.
André Paul Guillaume Gide authored books. From beginnings in the symbolist movement, career of Gide ranged to anticolonialism between the two World Wars.
Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide exposes the conflict and eventual reconciliation to public view between the two sides of his personality; a straight-laced education and a narrow social moralism split apart these sides. One can see work of Gide as an investigation of freedom and empowerment in the face of moralistic and puritan constraints, and it gravitates around his continuous effort to achieve intellectual honesty. His self-exploratory texts reflect his search of full self, even to the point of owning sexual nature without betraying values at the same time. After his voyage of 1936 to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the same ethos informs his political activity, as his repudiation of Communism suggests.
Chinese 安德烈·纪德
André Paul Guillaume Gide authored books. From beginnings in the symbolist movement, career of Gide ranged to anticolonialism between the two World Wars.
Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide exposes the conflict and eventual reconciliation to public view between the two sides of his personality; a straight-laced education and a narrow social moralism split apart these sides. One can see work of Gide as an investigation of freedom and empowerment in the face of moralistic and puritan constraints, and it gravitates around his continuous effort to achieve intellectual honesty. His self-exploratory texts reflect his search of full self, even to the point of owning sexual nature without betraying values at the same time. After his voyage of 1936 to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the same ethos informs his political activity, as his repudiation of Communism suggests.
Chinese 安德烈·纪德
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
November 23, 2023
There are some celebrated intellectuals of whose legacy I frankly just do not understand. Andre Gide is one of them. I don't pretend to be an expert on his life and work, but what I have read and seen about him forces me to question the value of things like the Nobel Prize in literature.
TRIGGER WARNING: Discussion of some unpleasant themes ahead.
It hasn't just been Hollywood or the Catholic Church where abuse of children remained an open secret. In the literary world we had dashing, well-dressed European gentlemen throwing money at poor Algerian boys in exchange for sexual favors over by the cemetery, people like Michael Foucault, Oscar Wilde, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Andre Gide, people given a platform and applause by celebrities, musicians, and academics.
What does this have to do with "Urien's Voyage"? Well, throughout my life, I have been interested in exploring the work of authors awarded the Nobel and Pulitzer, and Gide is a recipient of the former. His only full-length novel, "The Counterfeiters," is a well-regarded work, and his own confessional journal is actually considered a masterpiece. One of my literary interests is French Symbolism, and "Urien's Voyage" is one of three books he published during his Symbolist period. So I went into reading this novella with an open mind and fully prepared to separate the artist from his art.
But Gide's work is his written catharsis, an immortalized attempt to grapple with his own passions that haunted him for his entire life. This novella is no exception. His writing is autobiographical, detailing his early upbringing which taught him that carnal feelings for anyone was sinful and should be suppressed, which led to a greater need to discharge that energy in angry power fantasies against women and young children, which grew to an obsession and an addiction. He knew he was a slave to his feelings, and eventually got tired of fighting, so his writing reflects his attempt to justify his behavior by a new kind of misguided morality of authenticity. After meeting like-minded peers who taught him you can be successful and popular while still indulging such fantasies with immunity, he then openly described himself as a "pederast." Consent was not in question. His wife was not considered. But he still always had a conscience whispering in his ear that he couldn't silence no matter how hard he tried. He attempted to reconcile himself with God, but in the end, he is noted for saying that he wished to remain lustful until his deathbed.
For all its use of symbolism, "Urien's Voyage" is a thinly disguised autobiography of the journey I outlined above. Or at least, the book only gets through the first part of it. Gide was still early in his career when he wrote this, and so the allegorical journey has the titular character (Gide himself) on a sea voyage to discover his true nature without ever really finding his answer. Along the way, he stops at many fantastic lands where he is tempted away from his noble cause. Sirens threaten to trap him, and he even ends up in a country with no men and full of horny women who hold him and his shipmates prisoner as sex slaves. There are boys there that look like girls and girls who look like boys, he says, and Uriel must use all of his will power to thwart the lustful wiles of the inhabitants. His own real-life future wife, who is also his cousin, makes an appearance in the Sargasso sea, and she is portrayed as an irritant to him until she fades away. But where is Uriel going? He doesn't know yet. The original title in French is actually a pun on "Voyage to Nowhere." Gide had not yet reached the point where he contented himself with his own brand of authenticity.
The novella itself is truly beautifully written, a fine example of the power of Symbolist prose and poetry, full of rich maritime colors, aquatic analogies, and fairytale dreamscapes. It is an absolute pleasure to read despite the often nonlinear and surreal quality to the narrative. But I've read a lot of allegories and Symbolist literature, and I don't find his wordsmith to be unique or groundbreaking.
And for all its shine, you can't polish off the stained truth, which is that Uriel's story, and Gide's, is a sad one. The author was clearly suffering here, consumed with conflicting feelings about his addiction until he eventually found the sham of solace in embracing what he thought was his nature. But an alcoholic doesn't find happiness by saying, "Welp, I just can't help it. I'm an addict. You can't judge me--It's my right to do what I want to do. If I want to drink myself to death, what concern is it of yours? At least if I died it would end all this pain. Maybe I'll even go to heaven, if there is one. But I don't really care. I am what I am."
It is true that addicts never recover unless they accept who they are. That's why in traditional 12-step meetings everyone introduces themselves by name, followed by their identification as an addict. In so doing, they don't have to be in denial anymore. Now they can do something about it. They can go to a restaurant and enjoy themselves without feeling overly tempted to order an apertif, which will surely lead to a whole fifth of Svedka, because they know they are allergic to alcohol, for example.
But that's not what Gide did. He did not find freedom. He still lied to himself about the hurtful consequences of acting on his desires. He lied to himself about how he was exploiting young children and forever impacting their development. He never considered their ability to consent, that he was exploiting the poor and the broken. He never considered his own racism that was inherent in his choice of boys. He didn't care about his wife, of whom it has been written that she forever suffered because of his constant compulsions that completely dominated his private and public life.
All of Gide's writing is infused with this struggle, because it was all he could think about. And that is all I could find in "Uriel's Voyage." So what are we supposed to learn from his work? What warranted a Nobel Prize, which curious readers like me use to alert us to new gems of literature with which to guide us in personal growth and wisdom?
I'm not really sure. From a psychological point of view, I am fascinated by Gide's self-styled confessions like this one, which, when paired with what we know or what has been said about his life, gives us a pretty comprehensive picture of the mind of a pedophile, and how money, education, resources, and social connections alter the perception of something which, by all accounts, is a mental illness, to something which becomes a political issue and an exercise in intellectual masturbation for out-of-touch elites. But for me, Gide's "voyage" doesn't take us anywhere we want to be. His journey was one of self-absorption, and his destination one of narcissism and selfishness.
In conclusion, Gide makes it impossible to separate the artist from the art, because in his case, his art is all about HIM. I just don't see the value in reading any more of his stuff, and I don't plan to revisit him again, no matter how great we are told his books are supposed to be.
We all should admit that sex is a primal driving force in our lives, that there is such a thing as hurtful fantasies and sexual addiction that infringes on the rights of others and causes deep pain for the individual and anyone whose lives they touch. We should not sweep it under the rug. But I don't see much discussion of Gide on this level, which is most troubling. Instead, there's just a lot of hogwash about this symbol here and his choice of metaphor there. I think it is a mistake to celebrate and reward this kind of pseudointellectual rationalization of destructive behavior. Gide deeply needed help, but instead he was enabled.
And to me, that's the important story here.
TRIGGER WARNING: Discussion of some unpleasant themes ahead.
It hasn't just been Hollywood or the Catholic Church where abuse of children remained an open secret. In the literary world we had dashing, well-dressed European gentlemen throwing money at poor Algerian boys in exchange for sexual favors over by the cemetery, people like Michael Foucault, Oscar Wilde, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Andre Gide, people given a platform and applause by celebrities, musicians, and academics.
What does this have to do with "Urien's Voyage"? Well, throughout my life, I have been interested in exploring the work of authors awarded the Nobel and Pulitzer, and Gide is a recipient of the former. His only full-length novel, "The Counterfeiters," is a well-regarded work, and his own confessional journal is actually considered a masterpiece. One of my literary interests is French Symbolism, and "Urien's Voyage" is one of three books he published during his Symbolist period. So I went into reading this novella with an open mind and fully prepared to separate the artist from his art.
But Gide's work is his written catharsis, an immortalized attempt to grapple with his own passions that haunted him for his entire life. This novella is no exception. His writing is autobiographical, detailing his early upbringing which taught him that carnal feelings for anyone was sinful and should be suppressed, which led to a greater need to discharge that energy in angry power fantasies against women and young children, which grew to an obsession and an addiction. He knew he was a slave to his feelings, and eventually got tired of fighting, so his writing reflects his attempt to justify his behavior by a new kind of misguided morality of authenticity. After meeting like-minded peers who taught him you can be successful and popular while still indulging such fantasies with immunity, he then openly described himself as a "pederast." Consent was not in question. His wife was not considered. But he still always had a conscience whispering in his ear that he couldn't silence no matter how hard he tried. He attempted to reconcile himself with God, but in the end, he is noted for saying that he wished to remain lustful until his deathbed.
For all its use of symbolism, "Urien's Voyage" is a thinly disguised autobiography of the journey I outlined above. Or at least, the book only gets through the first part of it. Gide was still early in his career when he wrote this, and so the allegorical journey has the titular character (Gide himself) on a sea voyage to discover his true nature without ever really finding his answer. Along the way, he stops at many fantastic lands where he is tempted away from his noble cause. Sirens threaten to trap him, and he even ends up in a country with no men and full of horny women who hold him and his shipmates prisoner as sex slaves. There are boys there that look like girls and girls who look like boys, he says, and Uriel must use all of his will power to thwart the lustful wiles of the inhabitants. His own real-life future wife, who is also his cousin, makes an appearance in the Sargasso sea, and she is portrayed as an irritant to him until she fades away. But where is Uriel going? He doesn't know yet. The original title in French is actually a pun on "Voyage to Nowhere." Gide had not yet reached the point where he contented himself with his own brand of authenticity.
The novella itself is truly beautifully written, a fine example of the power of Symbolist prose and poetry, full of rich maritime colors, aquatic analogies, and fairytale dreamscapes. It is an absolute pleasure to read despite the often nonlinear and surreal quality to the narrative. But I've read a lot of allegories and Symbolist literature, and I don't find his wordsmith to be unique or groundbreaking.
And for all its shine, you can't polish off the stained truth, which is that Uriel's story, and Gide's, is a sad one. The author was clearly suffering here, consumed with conflicting feelings about his addiction until he eventually found the sham of solace in embracing what he thought was his nature. But an alcoholic doesn't find happiness by saying, "Welp, I just can't help it. I'm an addict. You can't judge me--It's my right to do what I want to do. If I want to drink myself to death, what concern is it of yours? At least if I died it would end all this pain. Maybe I'll even go to heaven, if there is one. But I don't really care. I am what I am."
It is true that addicts never recover unless they accept who they are. That's why in traditional 12-step meetings everyone introduces themselves by name, followed by their identification as an addict. In so doing, they don't have to be in denial anymore. Now they can do something about it. They can go to a restaurant and enjoy themselves without feeling overly tempted to order an apertif, which will surely lead to a whole fifth of Svedka, because they know they are allergic to alcohol, for example.
But that's not what Gide did. He did not find freedom. He still lied to himself about the hurtful consequences of acting on his desires. He lied to himself about how he was exploiting young children and forever impacting their development. He never considered their ability to consent, that he was exploiting the poor and the broken. He never considered his own racism that was inherent in his choice of boys. He didn't care about his wife, of whom it has been written that she forever suffered because of his constant compulsions that completely dominated his private and public life.
All of Gide's writing is infused with this struggle, because it was all he could think about. And that is all I could find in "Uriel's Voyage." So what are we supposed to learn from his work? What warranted a Nobel Prize, which curious readers like me use to alert us to new gems of literature with which to guide us in personal growth and wisdom?
I'm not really sure. From a psychological point of view, I am fascinated by Gide's self-styled confessions like this one, which, when paired with what we know or what has been said about his life, gives us a pretty comprehensive picture of the mind of a pedophile, and how money, education, resources, and social connections alter the perception of something which, by all accounts, is a mental illness, to something which becomes a political issue and an exercise in intellectual masturbation for out-of-touch elites. But for me, Gide's "voyage" doesn't take us anywhere we want to be. His journey was one of self-absorption, and his destination one of narcissism and selfishness.
In conclusion, Gide makes it impossible to separate the artist from the art, because in his case, his art is all about HIM. I just don't see the value in reading any more of his stuff, and I don't plan to revisit him again, no matter how great we are told his books are supposed to be.
We all should admit that sex is a primal driving force in our lives, that there is such a thing as hurtful fantasies and sexual addiction that infringes on the rights of others and causes deep pain for the individual and anyone whose lives they touch. We should not sweep it under the rug. But I don't see much discussion of Gide on this level, which is most troubling. Instead, there's just a lot of hogwash about this symbol here and his choice of metaphor there. I think it is a mistake to celebrate and reward this kind of pseudointellectual rationalization of destructive behavior. Gide deeply needed help, but instead he was enabled.
And to me, that's the important story here.
April 7, 2012
I don’t know why Thomas Pynchon is on the cover.
October 25, 2022
While I was in New York visiting The New School I made a side trip to Strand Bookstore and bought this for six dollars. My parents listened to a Jeff Buckley record as they drove me back to school and I read my new book. I felt that background was related, at least in a tangential way, enough to include in my review.
Contrary to what the title and cover illustration of this edition would imply, it is not a work of nautical fiction. Of all Gide's novels it is the one closest to symbolism and also his furthest from the realism he would try in The Counterfeiters. Indeed, it could nearly be called a fantasy; Oddysean sirens, vampires and pirate queens all figure into the plot. But at its core the novel is Gide probing the corners of his mind, searching for answers to questions he cannot dare ask; a typically Gidean rumination.
The novel is marked by a certain sexual revulsion. I cannot say why, for example, Urien became so ashamed and sad when he learned his shipmates were having sex with the women at port. It is likely that only Gide and the few who view life as delicately as he can say why.
Contrary to what the title and cover illustration of this edition would imply, it is not a work of nautical fiction. Of all Gide's novels it is the one closest to symbolism and also his furthest from the realism he would try in The Counterfeiters. Indeed, it could nearly be called a fantasy; Oddysean sirens, vampires and pirate queens all figure into the plot. But at its core the novel is Gide probing the corners of his mind, searching for answers to questions he cannot dare ask; a typically Gidean rumination.
The novel is marked by a certain sexual revulsion. I cannot say why, for example, Urien became so ashamed and sad when he learned his shipmates were having sex with the women at port. It is likely that only Gide and the few who view life as delicately as he can say why.
April 9, 2024
Urians Reis is een korte roman dat zich op het eerste gezicht vast laat zetten met onnodig bloedige taal. Op ten duur was ik het hele spoor bijster door alle mooie woorden. Later werd het allemaal heel duidelijk. Ik zou het niet anders kunnen beschrijven dan een hele eerlijke en best grappige roman.
Een reis naar het niets.
Een reis naar het niets.
August 24, 2023
Allegorisch verslag van een reis naar exotische en onbekende streken.
Best een interessant tussendoortje, maar niet veel meer dan dat.
Best een interessant tussendoortje, maar niet veel meer dan dat.
April 25, 2024
Minder klassiek symbolisme. De allegorie is een beetje lauw.
Read
June 7, 2010personal myth
May 30, 2017
Beautiful little book. A voyage through dreams. I've read it in English translation, which is great. The more I read Gide's writings, the more I like him. He definitely becomes one of my heroes.
May 28, 2021
This is one of Gide's youthful works and frankly it doesn't hold a candle to The Immoralist.* The writing is overwrought (bad translation?), and the work itself self-indulgent, without any particularly profound philosophical insight. Part of its problem, perhaps, is that you get the impression that the author is trying to work to a formula (a symbolist one), and it quickly gets tiresome. The fact that the novella is a textbook case of Orientalism doesn't help. Ultimately, however, it's the story's central concept that I found difficult to relate to -- this setting out without any definite goals, awaiting for something grand and exciting and meaningful to happen to you, and then complaining that your expectations were not met. As if making something meaningful and valuable out of one's life just happened to one like manna falling out of the sky...
* I do sometimes wonder if my varying reactions to the same author's (occasionally even different authors') works have less to do with their intrinsic merits than the mood I'm approaching the texts in. The review, however, is written (as one generally writes one's own life) on the assumption that we are the constant in the equation.
* I do sometimes wonder if my varying reactions to the same author's (occasionally even different authors') works have less to do with their intrinsic merits than the mood I'm approaching the texts in. The review, however, is written (as one generally writes one's own life) on the assumption that we are the constant in the equation.
January 6, 2024
Slim fantasy travelogue in the tradition of Utopia, Bacon, Gulliver (just read Gulliver first!) The islands and civilisations encountered are all simply drawn and there is no plot or characterisation. There are some nice evocative descriptive passages of ice and snow (shipped to quays or collected) and water with diving and outdoor baths. The companions are captured by a queen in a land of sex starved women. Gide resists them easily enough though misses the skinny dipping sailors who go off with the girls then die of the plague. There are also some early hints of his pederasty.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 10, 2025
Je ne dirai pas que c’est une lecture très simple, on est confus au début et le récit n’as pas réellement de sens. Ce n’est qu’en avançant qu’on comprends que justement ce n’est pas le but, que le voyage est intérieur et suit les recherches de l’esprit. Un beau texte (peut être un peu initiatique, en tout cas il me fais penser aux questionnements proches à Gide et qu’on retrouve dans d’autres romans). Si je me suis accrochée malgré la difficulté à suivre (mis à part que ça en vaut la peine car j’apprécie le projet d’écriture ) c’est grâce à la beauté de l’écriture ! Le vocabulaire et les images créé sont sublimes <3
October 7, 2020
Récit encore très symbolique de Gide, encore sorte d’odyssée idéaliste dont Gide s’éloigne lentement. Première partie très particulière et intéressante au niveau des affects, des sensations qui se retrouveront pleinement dans Les Nourritures terrestres.
July 28, 2018
Classic inaccessible allegory by a young author. (Hint: It ends badly.)
October 17, 2021
Fever dream somewhere between The Odyssey and Gulliver's Travels. Maybe better as a poem so people aren't annoyed it doesn't make any sense.
March 4, 2025
La traducción del libro es buena. Permite al lector conocer de buena manera la estructura de Gide. La prosa es mágica. Me transportó a lugares que no había pensado
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
July 29, 2011Es un relato del inicio de un viaje, así mismo, tiempo de huida, de búsqueda y de sacrificio. Lectura que te va absorbiendo. Los lugares descritos en él son magníficos, los recorridos son admirables, nuca quisieras salir de ellos, al mismo tiempo que aterrorizan a Urien y su grupo, que deben escapar de estos lugares.
August 4, 2010
i went to wikipedia to get more info about symbolist writers but LOOK HOW SICK GIDE LOOKS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gid...
February 17, 2012
few others can do better to philosophically transport you to the ideal of an exotic place.
The expository editor's footnotes were really annoying in this edition though.
The expository editor's footnotes were really annoying in this edition though.
March 19, 2014
Beautiful, poetic.
July 30, 2014
Poetic, beautiful
June 21, 2016
"Madame, I deceived you:
This whole book is but a lie"
This whole book is but a lie"
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews