Correspondance I 1893-1901, and: Correspondance II 1902-1936, and: Correspondance 1892-1945 (review)

These editions, models of scholarship, are important new resources for the study of three figures - André Gide, his writer friend Eugène Rouart, and the painter Maurice Denis, all of whom began their careers in the late nineteenth century. The editors deserve commendation for outstanding work. Professor Walker's comprehensive and enlightening introductions (nearly 80 pages of introduction for the first volume, 90 for the second) provide invaluable background, summaries, interpretations, and assessments. The introduction to the Gide-Denis letters (along with useful appendices) is likewise an excellent guide to reading. It should be noted, with approval, that the latter volume is illustrated generously and includes some dessins inédits. Both works are indexed and there are copious notes.

Those who authorized the editions deserve credit. Catherine Gide and the Denis family respectively approved the publication of Gide's letters to Denis (preserved in the Musée Maurice Denis in Saint-Germain-en-Laye) and those from Denis (held in the Jacques Doucet library or private collections). Jean-Pierre Dauphin of Gallimard was similarly instrumental in the publication. The Gide-Rouart correspondence was challenging, because of the dispersal of letters and other obstacles. The most important source for the letters written by Gide is the Harry Ransom Research Center of the University of Texas, where Professor Walker worked for extensive periods; other letters are at Southern Illinois University and Columbia University and in private collections. In the case of Rouart's letters, while some come from the Archives Catherine Gide, many are in the Fonds Gide of the Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet in Paris, and were under seal, to be opened only upon approval by a committee of which most members were dead - another obstacle to be overcome. Rouart's son Olivier, aged 93 when the matter was initiated, cooperated in the project, but after his death the grandson, Gabriel Rouart, raised objections and stalled for many months. In light of this stalling, the publisher who had expressed interest withdrew. The Presses Universitaires de Lyon deserve recognition for assuming the project.

The Gide-Rouart letters through 1901 provide cultural flavor and insight into the early career of each correspondent. As a young writer, Gide (born late in 1869) sought connections in literary and artistic circles and soon became acquainted with both established figures and apprentice writers, some of genius. The extent of his correspondence subsequently in life is known; it is instructive to see additional evidence of his earlier epistolary exchanges. (Readers wishing to look further at early letters should consult the edition of the Gide, Louÿs, and Valéry correspondence by Peter Fawcett and Pascal Mercier titled Correspondances à trois voix [Gallimard, 2004 ].)

Freeing himself with difficulty from the prosperous, devout, and rather narrow Protestant milieu in which he was reared, Gide steeped himself in the æsthetics of the late century, particularly Symbolism; Mallarmé's early influence on him had lifelong effects, reinforcing practical æsthetic lessons from other nineteenth-century figures, especially Baudelaire and Flaubert, who likewise remained in Gide's pantheon, along with Stendhal. In Les Cahiers d'André Walter (1891), mentions and the very feel of German Romanticism (particularly Romantic music) are visible everywhere. That Gide moved away rapidly from the hothouse of late nineteenth-century æstheticism does not diminish its first effects. Æsthetic values would remain primary for him except where he treated moral and social issues with the intention of changing minds (homosexuality, colonial abuses, and communism being the major cases, and women's issues a minor one).

Born in 1872, Rouart came from a different milieu...