Travels in the Congo [Paperback]

Andre Gide (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

Product Details

• Paperback: 375 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (January 17, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0880013656
• ISBN-13: 978-0880013659
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,386,299 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A LIITERARY WORK NOT A POLITICAL TRACT, October 6, 2009

By 

Olivier Comte (Neuilly FRANCE) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Travels in the Congo (Paperback)

ANDRE GIDE travelled for 11 months in the western French African colonies, with his lover MARC ALLEGRET who shot a documentary under the same title: VOYAGE AU CONGO.
Gide was not an effete epicurian and he shows his anger against he unspeakable treatment of the Africans by the private companies and against the colonial administration who doesn't do anything.
He came from a rich family and we can't expect from him a denunciation of colonialism in its principle. It's only a system
to be improved by the French government against the greed of the colonial agents.
But it was too much for the press and the politicians, except for the communists (nice LEON BLUM did nothing, as usual).
The question came to the parliament but GIDE soon was the accused, not the system.
The main part of this thin book is not about colonialism but the nature who amazed, charmed and frightened Gide, who writes with his usual guilessness, without any aesthetic pretentiousness.
In 1928, GIDE published RETURN TO TCHAD (RETOUR AU TCHAD), a comparable book who can seem to be the same thing.
The Soviet government was stupîd enough to invite him,along with other writers.
He published RETURN FROM USSR (RETOUR DE L'URSS) in 1936, who condemned communism, without reservation.
That didn't stop the VICHY REGIME (the secretary of education was gay too) from accusing him of having "demoralized French youth".