The work of art is the exaggeration of an idea, says Gide in the
epilogue of the “Prometheus Illbound.” This is really the explanation
of the whole book and of many other books of Gide.
His world is a world of abstract ideas, under the action of which most
of his characters move as marionettes. “Time and space are the boards,
which, with the help of our minds, have been set up by the innumerable
truths of the universe as a stage for their own performances. And there
we play our parts like determined, convinced, devoted and voluptuous
marionettes.”
That is the reason why there is a determinist atmosphere in his books
and that even the disinterested act appears as the reaction of the
mind on its own concept. Zeus, the banker, poses this disinterested act
because his thought refuses or hesitates to admit it; the same thing
happens with Lafcadio in the “Caves du Vatican” when he is on the point
of murdering Amédée Fleurissoire.
The tyranny of ideas is the dominating force of his characters. Even
his first writings--where one finds some of his best pages, which
appear to be purely lyrical explosion--such as “Les Nourritures
Terrestres” and “Le Voyage d’Urien,” are really the songs of a
mind which leads its life by the _concept_ of eternal desire and
detachment--a mind very near that of Nietzsche.
It is because of that tyranny of ideas that Gide is attracted by
religious psychology. After all, Alissa of “La Porte Étroite”
sacrifices her life and her happiness to her ideas. It is because
of that also that one of the most daring books of the time,
“L’Immoraliste,” is written in the most moral way: the feelings are
only described by their reaction on the brain. And this applies to
nearly the whole work of Gide.
Even his concept of heroism is ruled by it. His heroes are monomaniacs
of a thought which they believe or create ideal. His “Roi Candaule” is
a man stupefied by the _idea_ of his possessions.
That which does not nourish his brain is a reason for depression, and
as love or passion absorbs the brain without nourishing it, he resents
it. Every attempt of a purely amorous adventure is a failure, as well
in “L’Immoraliste” as in the “Tentative Amoureuse.”
On the contrary, when it becomes by struggle a problem for the brain
it excites him. Alissa was really his only love, and he could not
love Isabelle when she had lost her power of attraction through the
revelation of the unknown she represented to his mind.
The exaltation of Gide is a Nietzschean exaltation--it is an exaltation
caused by the power of mind.
The definition of genius he gives in “Prétextes” is very characteristic
from that point of view. He calls it: “Le sentiment de la ressource.”
His sensitiveness is the sensitiveness of the brain, which is so acute
that it vibrates through his whole personality. From there comes the
clear, logical form of his tales.
The book, “Prometheus Illbound,” which we present to the English public
to-day is one of the most characteristic books of Gide: a work of pure
intellectual fantasy, where the subtle brain of the author has full
play. It is the expression of the humorous side of a mind which must be
ranked among the greatest of the world’s literature.