∎ PDF Strait Is the Gate La Porte Etroite Andre Gide Andrew Moore Dorothy Bussy 9781595690623 Books

Strait Is the Gate La Porte Etroite Andre Gide Andrew Moore Dorothy Bussy 9781595690623 Books

Download As PDF : Strait Is the Gate La Porte Etroite Andre Gide Andrew Moore Dorothy Bussy 9781595690623 Books

Strait Is the Gate La Porte Etroite Andre Gide Andrew Moore Dorothy Bussy 9781595690623 Books

There can be many different ways of enjoying this book, for example, as an agonizing love story of two young people with some predicaments resembling those of Virgin Mary and Joseph, in which case, a very intense romance/dedication with impossibility of their union, however, leading to preoccupation, what I would simply call--I want it, but I shouldn't, so I won't, but I will forever think about it--syndrome.

But I read it more as constant dialogues/disputes inside of a thinking person---about the meaning/purposes/pursuit of virtues, about the existence of retraints through religious framework, about the existence of freedom both for emotions/intellect and self effacement, and all those unanswerable questions...

The point, may be not in the answers, but in the pursuits which also present dangers and agony of self denial and ultimate demise, "I felt strange contentment that filled my whole being in your presence; 'a contentment so great' you said, that I desire nothing beyond!' Alas! that is just what makes me uneasy...." then doubting, "why do you tear off your wings?", another doubts "Sometimes I doubt whether there is any other virtue than love...to love as much as possible and continually more and more...But at other times, alas! virtue appears to me to be nothing but resistance to love. What! shall I dare to call that virtue which is the most natural inclination of my heart? Oh, tempting sophism! Specious allurement! Cunning mirage of happiness!...........charms so great can be surpassed only when virtue teaches us to renounce them". A profounly philosophical book!


Tags : Strait Is the Gate (La Porte Etroite) [Andre Gide, Andrew Moore, Dorothy Bussy] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Strait is the Gate, first published in 1909 in France as La Porte etroite, is a novel about the failure of love in the face of the narrowness of the moral philosophy of Protestantism. --- André Gide (1869 - 1951) was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947. Gide's career spanned from the symbolist movement to the advent of anticolonialism in between the two World Wars. Gide's work can be seen as an investigation of freedom and empowerment in the face of moralistic and puritan constraints,Andre Gide, Andrew Moore, Dorothy Bussy,Strait Is the Gate (La Porte Etroite),Mondial,159569062X,Christian - Romance,Classic fiction (pre c 1945),Classics,FICTION Classics,Fiction : Christian - Romance,Fiction : Psychological,FictionChristian - Romance - General,FictionPsychological,Literature - Classics Criticism,Psychological

Strait Is the Gate La Porte Etroite Andre Gide Andrew Moore Dorothy Bussy 9781595690623 Books Reviews

You can bet that old Omar Khayyam loved a few women in his day and when he got out there under the spreading bough with his loaf of bread, a book of verse, and a jug of wine, he did not fail to eat, drink, recite, and all the rest. That's what I think life is about. Dreams are central, but if you have a chance to realize your dream, and you don't because you think you'll be happier if you don't, then your dreams are just so much junk and you are kidding yourself. Self-denial may be good for your health, but not for your soul.

Andre Gide wrote this novel back before World War I, when extreme sensibility had not been crushed by the horrors of modern war; a time when the words `holocaust' or `genocide' had not been much heard. I am not claiming that this is a bad novel---no, on the contrary---it is a very complex and finely-crafted piece of literature. However, I found it impossible to like. Jerome and Alissa, two extremely sensitive and religious young people in Normandy, fall in love early in life, but spend the rest of the novel avoiding each other, sacrificing themselves for `purity', turning to God instead of to each other, embarassed by their own passion, and other vain exercises in psychological self-mutilation. The twists and turns that Gide manages to write into this short, but extremely complex novel are breathtakingly clever and believable, but the whole effect was to make me feel somewhat nauseous and exceedingly disturbed. Alissa writes to her lover who thinks only of her, "No, don't cut short your journey for the sake of a few days' meeting. Seriously, it is better that we should not see each other again just yet. Believe me, I could not think of you more if you were with me. I should be sorry to give you pain, but I have come to the point of no longer wanting your presence---now. Shall I confess ? If I knew you were coming this evening I should fly away." And so it goes, desire, rejection, reunion, the heights of platonic passion, and again separation. A second love story underlines the first to give it the traceries of poignancy. Some years ago in Australia, there was a campaign to get people away from their television sets, out to do some healthier activity. The slogan then was "Life ! Be in it !" This couple's slogan is definitely, "Life ! Be out of it !"

If you have read Kafka's "The Castle" and enjoyed it, then this book is definitely for you. If you ever thrilled to Ring Lardner's "The Ecstasy of Owen Muir" or Kawabata Yasunari's "House of Sleeping Beauties", then I suppose you will be drawn to STRAIT IS THE GATE. I am not an expert on Gide by any means, but it may be that he wanted to write several books showing the complex depths of various human emotions. It's five star writing, but in the opinion of this reviewer, it is a twisted book that will not give you much pleasure.
I read this book long long ago when I was 15 or so. It was one of the first real literary works I have ever read, and, at that age, the purity in human relationship which this story pursuits came through naturally for me (getting ideas about human relationship through this book was definitely better than through tabloids or crappy magazines or romance novels or Hollywood movies!). I have never cried or suffered over a relationship, and been happily married for 25 yrs now.

In the Afterward in the edition I have read, the translator explained that the story reflects Gide's own marriage, or the relationship with his wife. Gide loved his wife dearly, but they hardly had a sexual relationship, or something to that effect, and throughout their marriage, Gide was tormented.

To me, at age 15, the idea, the kind of love that Alissa was looking for -- "divine" and on a higher plane, spiritual than physical, intangible than tangible, and eternal and true -- was quite attractive. It may look unhealthy, but you don't read a story and take it literally. It is a story of Gide's thoughts and ideals, not the story of literal facts. You don't really live your ideal, but to keep that ideal in your mind while you live your daily life is a great way to live.

This book's ideal doesn't go with today's trend or culture, and it is hard to understand. But I think Gide's endeaver was well worth it. It's a very good book to read, especially for young people. It will take you to a -- if not a higher plane, a different realm, and you will see love and relationship from a totally different angle.
I read it in Korean some times ago and recently again,and in English in this time,
I like it.
I became to know more about author Andre Gide. This book's title seems from the Bible.(Mathew 7-13-14)
Sung K. Moon
There can be many different ways of enjoying this book, for example, as an agonizing love story of two young people with some predicaments resembling those of Virgin Mary and Joseph, in which case, a very intense romance/dedication with impossibility of their union, however, leading to preoccupation, what I would simply call--I want it, but I shouldn't, so I won't, but I will forever think about it--syndrome.

But I read it more as constant dialogues/disputes inside of a thinking person---about the meaning/purposes/pursuit of virtues, about the existence of retraints through religious framework, about the existence of freedom both for emotions/intellect and self effacement, and all those unanswerable questions...

The point, may be not in the answers, but in the pursuits which also present dangers and agony of self denial and ultimate demise, "I felt strange contentment that filled my whole being in your presence; 'a contentment so great' you said, that I desire nothing beyond!' Alas! that is just what makes me uneasy...." then doubting, "why do you tear off your wings?", another doubts "Sometimes I doubt whether there is any other virtue than love...to love as much as possible and continually more and more...But at other times, alas! virtue appears to me to be nothing but resistance to love. What! shall I dare to call that virtue which is the most natural inclination of my heart? Oh, tempting sophism! Specious allurement! Cunning mirage of happiness!...........charms so great can be surpassed only when virtue teaches us to renounce them". A profounly philosophical book!