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  • André Gide and Curiosity
  • Jocelyn Van Tuyl
André Gide and Curiosity. By Victoria Reid. (Faux titre, 340). Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009. 316 pp., ill. Pb €64.00; $93.00.

Given Gide's polymathic epistemophilia — his passion for intellectual inquiry was excited in turn by anthropology, art, botany, entomology, sexuality, and travel — examining his writings through the lens of curiosity is so pertinent an endeavour as to seem [End Page 115] self-evident. The fact that this topic has not previously been approached in a systematic way highlights the originality and significance of Victoria Reid's project. Structured thematically around the categories of sexual, scientific, and writerly curiosity, this ambitious study examines a canny selection of fiction and life writings from the vast and diverse Gidean œuvre. The most interesting aspect of this organizational principle is how the author explores the junctions uniting these categories — as when she relates Gide's childhood passion for entomology to his later sexual investigations (p. 83) — and the liminal spaces between categories — as when she illustrates the transitions from scientificsexual curiosity through desiring — sexual curiosity, fetishism, and incuriosity (this last being a most fascinating way to examine Gide's attitude towards women's intellect and sexuality). Of particular note is the way the concept of curiosity allows for a synthetic and truly critical (rather than merely condemning) approach to some of Gide's less pleasant traits: misogynistic and colonialist attitudes, sexual manipulation, and occasional cruelty towards those closest to him. Reid structures her argument around the psychoanalytic theories of Melanie Klein, which seem well motivated in some places and less compelling in others. The illuminating discussion of suicide — that of Gide's friend Emile Ambresin and the suicidal thoughts or actions of a number of fictional characters — suggests one possible limitation of the theoretical framework. Reid convincingly adduces the Kleinian notion of sadistic and reparative impulses to relate suicide (which Gide's œuvre already links to sexual and scientific exploration) to writing, the third term of her taxonomy of curiosity (p. 240). Discussion might have extended to Gide's assertion, when accused of leading youth to suicide through his writings on homosexuality, that his example had, on the contrary, saved many readers from suicidal desperation (Journal, II: 1926-1950, ed. by Martine Sagaert (Paris: Gallimard, 1997), p. 804). Perhaps the Kleinian focus on the mother imago obscures this other perspective on the reparative virtues of Gide's writings (although this typical Gidean self-characterization as a pedagogue might ultimately prove compatible with the Kleinian perspective). Theoretical considerations aside, the book offers rewarding textual analyses: beautifully realized readings of Gide's childhood toys — Reid elucidates a kaleidoscope's metaphorical significance (pp. 247-49) and unpacks the sexual symbolism of a marble (pp. 252-53) — evince perspicacity and humour. This book, originally a University of Reading doctoral thesis, draws on an extensive body of Gidean criticism, building most particularly on the work of Naomi Segal. It also establishes a broad literary context for Gide's curiosity, although this effort sometimes moves swiftly among copious quotations that could have been better integrated. Despite a handful of typographic and punctuation errors in the final chapter, the book is carefully written and presented; a brief glossary of psychoanalytic terms and a meticulously organized bibliography enhance the volume's usefulness.

Jocelyn Van Tuyl
New College of Florida
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