Corydon was published in a limited private edition in 1911 (12 copies) and in a commercial edition by Gallimard in 1924. Gide considered it his most important book — a claim that his literary friends found baffling but that reflected his conviction that the defense of homosexuality was a moral imperative that trumped all aesthetic considerations.
The book consists of four dialogues between the narrator (a skeptic) and Corydon (who defends homosexuality). Corydon’s arguments are drawn from multiple domains: biology (the prevalence of homosexual behavior in the animal kingdom), history (the role of homosexuality in classical Greece), sociology (the argument that periods of cultural achievement coincide with tolerance of homosexuality), and aesthetics (the relationship between homosexual desire and artistic creation). The arguments are uneven — some are sophisticated, others are dated or tendentious — but their cumulative force is impressive, particularly given the historical context.
The publication of the commercial edition in 1924 — the same year as his autobiography If It Die…, which described his sexual experiences in North Africa — constituted Gide’s public coming-out, and the consequences were severe. He lost friends, was attacked in the press, and was denounced from the pulpit. Roger Martin du Gard, his closest friend, had begged him not to publish. Gide published anyway, insisting that honesty was worth any social cost. The decision took courage that is difficult to appreciate from the vantage point of the twenty-first century.
Collecting Corydon
First commercial edition (Gallimard, Paris, 1924, in French): Paperback wrappers.
Market values:
- Commercial first edition, fine: $200–$600
- 1911 private edition (12 copies): Extremely rare, museum pieces
- English translations: $30–$100