Andre Gide's long life was spent in revolt against social, political and moral conventions. 'If It Die' is a record of his childhood and early manhood, a tracery of the early influences and pressures that made him into one of the most influential of modern French writers.
Written with twenty years hindsight, 'If It Die' is a deliberately uninhibited and revealing exercise as well as a masterpiece of French prose, thus fulfilling the two criteria he sets himself - to satisfy the demands of truth without neglecting the claims of art.
'If It Die' is a delightful and memorable account of childhood, of friendships and travels, and of sexual awakening.
