The work of art is the exaggeration of an idea, says Gide in the epilogue of the “Prometheus Illbound.” This is really the explanation of the whole book and of many other books of Gide. His world is a world of abstract ideas, under the action of which most of his characters move as marionettes. “Time and space are the boards, which, with the help of our minds, have been set up by the innumerable truths of the universe as a stage for their own performances. And there we play our parts like determined, convinced, devoted and voluptuous marionettes.”…
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