PROMETHEUS ILLBOUND BY ANDRÉ GIDE LITERAL TRANSLATION FROM THE FRENCH BY LILIAN ROTHERMERE LONDON CHATTO AND WINDUS 1919 PREFACE 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.” That is the reason why there is a determinist atmosphere in his books and that even the disinterested act appears as the reaction of the mind on its own concept. Zeus, the banker, poses this disinterested act because his thought refuses or hesitates to admit it; the same thing happens with Lafcadio in the “Caves du Vatican” when he is on the point of murdering Amédée Fleurissoire. The tyranny of ideas is the dominating force of his characters. Even his first writings--where one finds some of his best pages, which appear to be purely lyrical explosion--such as “Les Nourritures Terrestres” and “Le Voyage d’Urien,” are really the songs of a mind which leads its life by the _concept_ of eternal desire and detachment--a mind very near that of Nietzsche. It is because of that tyranny of ideas that Gide is attracted by religious psychology. After all, Alissa of “La Porte Étroite” sacrifices her life and her happiness to her ideas. It is because of that also that one of the most daring books of the time, “L’Immoraliste,” is written in the most moral way: the feelings are only described by their reaction on the brain. And this applies to nearly the whole work of Gide. Even his concept of heroism is ruled by it. His heroes are monomaniacs of a thought which they believe or create ideal. His “Roi Candaule” is a man stupefied by the _idea_ of his possessions. That which does not nourish his brain is a reason for depression, and as love or passion absorbs the brain without nourishing it, he resents it. Every attempt of a purely amorous adventure is a failure, as well in “L’Immoraliste” as in the “Tentative Amoureuse.” On the contrary, when it becomes by struggle a problem for the brain it excites him. Alissa was really his only love, and he could not love Isabelle when she had lost her power of attraction through the revelation of the unknown she represented to his mind. The exaltation of Gide is a Nietzschean exaltation--it is an exaltation caused by the power of mind. The definition of genius he gives in “Prétextes” is very characteristic from that point of view. He calls it: “Le sentiment de la ressource.”