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“Envying another man's happiness is madness; you wouldn't know what to do with it if you had it.”
I am feeling conflicted about this one.
It is similar in plot and vibes to Death in Venice but without the hyper fixation on one person. In "The Immoralist" Gide explores one man's sexual awakening/realization. Michel marries the sweet Marceline out of duty to his father & on their honeymoon to Michel falls ill, but as he recovers he is captivated by the beauty and health of a young boy. This trend co ...more
I am feeling conflicted about this one.
It is similar in plot and vibes to Death in Venice but without the hyper fixation on one person. In "The Immoralist" Gide explores one man's sexual awakening/realization. Michel marries the sweet Marceline out of duty to his father & on their honeymoon to Michel falls ill, but as he recovers he is captivated by the beauty and health of a young boy. This trend co ...more
Interesting portrayal of a flawed and self-indulgent character, Michel, who suffers a near-fatal illness and on recovery decides to cast off his old system of values and morality to discover a more immediate and sensual life. Much of this involves his gradual abandonment of his wife, Marceline, as he acknowledges his homosexual or possibly bisexual desires.
Michel is an unlikeable character, but I felt Gide dealt well with the ambiguity of his behaviour and his attempts to justify it to his audie ...more
Michel is an unlikeable character, but I felt Gide dealt well with the ambiguity of his behaviour and his attempts to justify it to his audie ...more
I'm sure in its time this was completely shocking, but reading it now, I find a gay man straining to give voice to his passion while maintaining a screen - not ever letting men fall in love with each other. All his protestations that his is a story of awakening to life in the discovery of sensuality fall a little flat when he avoids going in fiction where in life his desires obviously (to a modern reader) lie. Plus the displacement of beauty from adults on to children, like with Thomas Mann, ten
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Jul 21, 2016
Anna Fennell
marked it as to-read
Dec 07, 2016
Dianne
marked it as to-read
Jan 03, 2018
Sara
marked it as to-read
Apr 14, 2018
Dan
marked it as to-read
Dec 30, 2018
Tatjana JP
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
1001-books,
guardian-1000-novels
Nov 16, 2019
Lin
marked it as 1001-books-tr
May 03, 2021
Shay
marked it as to-read
Aug 25, 2021
Diane B
marked it as to-read
Sep 04, 2021
Maria
marked it as to-read
