André Gide and the Second World War

The first complete study of Gide's neglected wartime writings. Arguably the most influential French writer of the early twentieth century, André Gide is a paradigmatic figure whose World War II writings offer an exemplary reflection of the challenges facing a leading writer in a time of national collapse. Tracing Gide's circuitous "intellectual itinerary" from the fall of France through the postwar purge, this book examines the ambiguous role of France's senior man of letters during the Second W