Journals (French: Journal) were published by Gallimard in multiple volumes between 1939 and 1950, covering the years 1889 to 1949. The complete journal runs to over a million words and constitutes one of the most remarkable acts of self-documentation in literary history. Gide began keeping the journal as a teenager and maintained it, with varying degrees of regularity, for sixty years — through two world wars, the rise and fall of communism, the transformation of French literature from Symbolism to Existentialism, and his own evolution from a shy, guilt-ridden young Protestant to the Nobel Prize-winning eminence of French letters.
The journal is not a record of events — Gide’s daily life was often monotonous, and he says so — but of thought. He records his reading (enormous in range and volume), his conversations, his opinions on other writers (frequently devastating), his political evolution (from aristocratic individualism through a brief flirtation with communism to disillusioned humanism), and his ongoing struggle with questions of morality, sexuality, and artistic integrity.
The entries on other writers are among the journal’s greatest pleasures. Gide knew everyone — Valéry, Claudel, Proust, Martin du Gard, Malraux, Sartre — and his portraits of them are sharp, affectionate, and occasionally merciless. His comments on Proust (admiration mixed with exasperation at the length) and on Claudel (respect for the artist, dismay at the Catholic convert) are among the finest literary criticism in the French language.
Collecting the Journals
First edition (Gallimard, Paris, various volumes 1939–1950): Paperback wrappers.
Market values:
- Complete French first editions: $300–$800
- English translations (Knopf, various): $30–$100 per volume