BOOKS
,
THE FABULOUS EXAMPLE OF ANDRE GIDE
TWO LEGENDS: OEDIPUS AND THESEUS. By Andre Gide. Tronsloted
from the French by John Russell. Alfred
A.
Knopf. $3.00.
THE JOURNALS OF ANDRE GIDE. Vol. IV: 1939-1949. Tronsloted from
the French by Justin O'Brien. Alfred
A.
Knopf. $6.00.
Gide himself wisely suggested that his play about Oedipus
and his short novel about Theseus be published in one volume. The
play was written in 1930, and the second work twelve years after. Thus
the difference in time of composition
is
one of the fascinations of this
volume, for the two works taken together make possible a comparison of
two stages in Gide's long development as an artist and as a moralist.
Oedipus, at present the most famous of all literary characters, ap–
pears in both works, and his meeting with Theseus is an astonishing
sequel to the view of him which Gide presents in his play. And the two
works, in one book, make possible the kind of illuminating comparison
which is one of the import.tnt reasons for the inexhaustible vitality and
veritable immortality of classical mythology. We can hardly avoid com–
paring Gide's Oedipus with Sophocles' plays about the tragic hero, with
the Freudian use of the myth, with Jean Cocteau's different modern in–
terpretation of Oedipus in
The Infernal Machine,
and with his
other
manifestations. Then there is the extraordinary contrast between Gide's
Theseus, and the Theseus of Euripides and Racine. Both the play and
the novel make a rich use of these parallels and variations, and they are
also full of sly hints, allusions and innuendoes directed at the reader
who knows Gide's career. For example, Gide tells us that one of Oedipus'
sons has written two books. These books have almost the same titles as
two books by French disciples of Gide. And both sons are accused by
Oedipus of having misunderstood his teachings. This is a colossal joke,
but a somewhat limited and local one.
Yet neither work depends upon such tricks, nor need the reader who
does not recognize them be at a loss. Gide's Oedipus is very interesting
in himself, and the play is intelligible apart from any external reference.
Like so many of Gide's heroes, Oedipus is a disciple of the author, a
being who declares that he believes only in himself, who wishes to dis-
