one sees to the full Gide's need for dialogue with the other.
A parallel to this is to be found in La ^orte etroite.
Despite the basic failure of their attempts at conversation, corres pondence between Jerome and Alissa becomes no less sterile since there is a lack of communication and dialogue. Hence, Alissa tries to break 1. G./R. Corr., 26th June 1957» p* 95
2. G./V. Corr., 9th July 1991» P. 108. Interestingly, in a letter to her son of the 20th November 1895 Madame Paul Gide expresses the same sentiments because of her fear that she may not echo the tone of her son's letters correctly.
5. This aspect will be dealt with more fully later in this chapter. 4. O./ft. Corr., 1st July 1927> P«99«
5. G./Gheon Corr. 1, 10th April 1899
1
P« 288. 6. G./V. Corr., March 1895• P» 200.off their relationship because : "...je sentais trop que notre corres pondence n’etait qu’un grand mirage, que chacun de nous n'ecrivait, helms! qu’a soi-meme et que. • .nous restions toujours elolgnes!”
Dialogue is thus essential for the continued existence of correspondence as Cide understands it* Its action upon Gide is, ln my opinion, two-fold. Firstly, through dialogue, Gide achieves communion with the other and absorbs , thus making his correspondent's experience his own. This aspect is to be seen dearly in two letters to Henri Gheon in which Gide writes t
^ris-moi. Puissent tea poemes etre seulement aussi beaux que tes lettres! gn les lisant, je ne sens plus qui je suis, qui nous somraea, et - parce qu'elles me . disent aon amour - je ne ra'y distingue plus d'avec toi, and i
Cher vieux, ecris encore; tes lettres sont ma vie, ma Joie; J'ai besoin de sentir que tu deviens et de m'associer un peu & ta vie; gr&ce a toi j'aural eu deux jeunesses... 5
Dialogue, in thia case, affects by extension.
secondly, the letter may act as an agent provocateur.
One often finds that Gide accepts just as cheerfully letters where his correspondent attacks his position as those where there is complete agree ment. Of all Gide's correspondents none, perhaps, was as assiduous as Martin du Gard in his criticisms of Gide. Almost without exception, Gide classifies Kartin du Gard's most severe letters as excellent. This
is not because he invariably agrees with them but because they have provoked him to thought, the outcome of which is a clearer knowledge of what hie views really are and their expression in a ’’true” letter.
Thus, an epistolary exchange on the question of the Catholic Church's absence at the Ecumenical Council ends with Gide's comment : " Voila la
1. Romans, p. 559.
2. G./Gh6on Corr. 2, 8th March 1905, pp. 588-589. Gide is referring to his and Gheon's simultaneous affair with M.
5. Ibid, 22nd January 1915» P. 872.
4. The most notable exception being after Martin du Gard's letter of
-61-
/
seule lettre que j’aie pu ecrire depuis...trois semaines.. ."
Written dialogue, be it through communion or opposition, is hence a means of action upon one*s thoughts or feelings and has the advantage over the spoken word of being preservable. The true letter affects, even alters one’s position but never leaves one untoubhed.
Affection alone is incapable of such action. After describing an evening with a certain young Adolphe to Henri Gheon, Gide writes: ”11
X V, / 9
rae serable apres t’avoir dit cela que je n’ai plus rien a t’ecrire”,
thereby unconsciously foreseeing the future development of their corres pondence. Their common homosexual experiences being the true source of dialogue and communion between Gide and Gheon, their termination, with Gheon*s conversion, brought an end to true correspondence.
Friendship is valuable to Gide only insofar as it is a source of dialogue and communication. As P. Iseler writes, friendship must be active:
Car l’amitie, pour Gide, est une chose plus mouvente, z et plus meritoire que ne le suppose Louys /IsicJ. Fidelite totale, imperieuse, a nos amis? non...mais fid^lite plus
imperieuse encore i l’Aaitie - c’est-a-dire au principe:
l’amitie ne doit jamais devenir un ^sentiment acquis*. 3
z
Gide himself endorsed this view when he said: ”Je faisais metier de mon
amitie^ In other words, friendship meant hard work for Gide since he 5
expected it to be productive not just of emotions but of ideas. Hence, dialogue and communication, the active components of the true letter are the principal reasons for the joy Gide found in correspondence.
Gide’s very notion of friendship confirms my former argument that
the letter is not to be confused with spontaneous expression nor to be
1. G./M.G. Corr. 2, 5*d September 1948» p. 424. 2. G./Gheon Corr. 1, 2nd September 1901, p. 354.
3. Lea Debuts d’Andre Gide vus par Pierre Louys, Ed. du Sa^ittaire, 1937.
P. 59. ,
4. G./V. Corr., p.9.
3. In a letter of the 6th October 1894» Madeleine comments with some
perspicacity on the egoism of the artist who cultivates his ego and his work through his friends and who, while loving them, must love himself more. This letter is contained in the, as yet, unpublished corres pondence of Gide with his mother.
taken as a sign of ordinary friendship. I will now consider two factors
of Gide's attitude to correspondence which will help to underline this fact and to clarify the intentions Gide had for his correspondence.
7 • Care over Correspondence.
Gide devotes an enormous amount of time and considerable effort to his correspondence. Often he spends an entire morning or more in composing a letter. While complaining of the time thus wasted, Gide nonetheless addsi "Kais, des que je reponds, ce ne peut etre avec indifference} et des lors, oela prend un temps.To write a worth-while letter, there fore, Gide is ready and, on occasion, willing^ to sacrifice his time.
Gide's Journal shows us that Gide not only spends a great deal of time on his correspondence but also cares enough about it to see<< out
4
second opinions particularly where the letters concerned are not to intimate correspondents or are in reply to an attack. Just as he turns to Martin du Gard
for
advice on his literary work, so Gide frequently consults him about .Letters before sending or retaining them. ; artindu Gard's advice is sought for a letter to Francois Porche which is inten-
x 5
ded for the Nouvelloa litteraires . Martin du Garfl's disapproval of this letter is enough to cause Gide to withdraw it. oimilarly, when Gide plans to write and publish a letter to Fabre-Luce, he asks Martin du Card for
6