The Counterfeiters: A Novel

By André Gide

A young artist pursues a search for knowledge through the treatment of homosexuality and the collapse of morality in middle class France.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: May 2, 2012
• ISBN: 9780307819321

André Gide

André Gide (1869 - 1951) was a French author described by The New York Times as, “French’s greatest contemporary man of letters.” Gide was a prolific writer with over fifty books published in his sixty-year career with his notable books including The Notebooks of André Walker (1891), The Immoralist (1902), The Pastoral Symphony (1919), The Counterfeiters (1925) and The Journals of André Gide (1950). He was also known for his openness surrounding his sexuality: a self-proclaimed pederast, Gide espoused the philosophy of completely owning one’s sexual nature without compromising one’s personal values which is made evident in almost all of his autobiographical works. At a time when it was not common for authors to openly address homosexual themes or include homosexual characters, Gide strove to challenge convention and portray his life, and the life of gay people, as authentically as possible.

Reviews for The Counterfeiters

[maxernst11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Duidelijk Bildungsroman met de jonge Bernard Profitendieu als centrale figuur. Kaleidoscoop aan figuren waarvan sommige duidelijk goed maar zeer onzeker zijn (Edward,Laura?), anderen het slechte voorbeeld geven (Vincent, Georges), en de meesten zich gewoon vals voordoen.Tussen dat alles verweven zit de wording van de roman van Edward en de worsteling van Edward met het echte leven.Middenstuk is duidelijk meest voldragen. Laatste deel eerder rommelig. Thema van de homoseksuele aantrekking duidelijk aanwezig, maar altijd bedekt uitgewerkt.Mooi zijn de moeilijke intermenselijke verhoudingen tussen de aantrekkingspolen Bernard-Olivier en Olivier-Edward.Schrijftechnisch valt de modernistische aanpak op. Maar toch zeker niet zo revolutionair als voorgangers Conrad en navolger Faulkner. Zeker de rijkste roman van Gide, maar toch niet helemaal geslaagd.

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Duidelijk Bildungsroman met de jonge Bernard Profitendieu als centrale figuur. Kaleidoscoop aan figuren waarvan sommige duidelijk goed maar zeer onzeker zijn (Edward,Laura…), anderen het slechte voorbeeld geven (Vincent, Georges), en de meesten zich gewoon vals voordoen.Tussen dat alles verweven zit de wording van de roman van Edward en de worsteling van Edward met het echte leven.Middenstuk is duidelijk meest voldragen. Laatste deel eerder rommelig. Thema van de homoseksuele aantrekking duidelijk aanwezig, maar altijd bedekt uitgewerkt.Mooi zijn de moeilijke intermenselijke verhoudingen tussen de aantrekkingspolen Bernard-Olivier en Olivier-Edward.Schrijftechnisch valt de modernistische aanpak op. Maar toch zeker niet zo revolutionair als voorgangers Conrad en navolger Faulkner. Zeker de rijkste roman van Gide, maar toch niet helemaal geslaagd.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It will take me a long time to unpack all of this, all of what it meant... there is so much to mull over. Suffice it to say, 'The Counterfeiters' is the kind of expansive classic that can take over your dreams, even when you are wide awake. It has a plot that is impossible to pin down, but that twists and turns around itself in a way that would make Charlie Kaufman proud - to summarise it would be to re-write it, and I would never want to do that.

[jwhenderson_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Counterfeiters is a book about writing a book, also called "The Counterfeiters". That is the primary theme of the novel which comes from the title of the book by the writer Edouard. Thus The Counterfeiters is a novel-within-a-novel, with Edouard (the alter ego of Gide) intending to write a book of the same title. Other stylistic devices are also used, such as an omniscient narrator that sometimes addresses the reader directly, weighs in on the characters' motivations or discusses alternate realities. However, there is also the story of a group of boys who are passing counterfeit coins throughout Paris. Thus we have entered a world where we cannot trust our senses -- what is counterfeit and what is real? Then we have the coming of age story of Bernard and Olivier as they prepare to leave school -- but does this extend beyond their education and emanate from all who are learning about the world? This learning which is required by the changing nature of the everyday, the quotidian reality that is, perhaps, counterfeit. I found the details of Edouard's struggles with his career, his friendships and love provide images that enhance the main themes, yet also provide narrative drive. Another subplot of the novel is homosexuality. Some of the characters are overtly homosexual, like the adolescent Olivier, and the adult writers Comte de Passavant and Eduoard. The Comte seems an evil and corrupting force while the latter is benevolent. Even when the treatment is not overt, there is a homoerotic subtext that runs throughout, which encompasses Olivier's friend, Bernard, and their schoolfellows Gontran and Philippe. The main theme of The Counterfeiters underlies the issue of sexuality, morality, and social order and lineage in a unique way for his era. Gide's novel was not received well on its appearance, perhaps because of its homosexual themes and its unusual composition, The Counterfeiters has gained a reputation in the intervening years and is now generally considered one of Gide's most important novels and counted among the Western Canon of literature.