Urien's Voyage (Peter Owen Modern Classics) [Paperback]

Andre Gide (Author), Wade Baskin (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Peter Owen Modern Classic | Publication Date: August 31, 2005

An important early work by a key French thinker, Urien's Voyage is a fantastic allegorical account of a journey to the Arctic. From the stagnant teeming waters of the Sargasso to the frozen north, Gide charts in sensual, sumptuous prose the marvellous journey of the Orion and the sexual and moral transformations of its crew. Largely overlooked on its first UK publication in 1964, Urien's Voyage is now regarded as a key work, articulating the powerful tension between sexuality and morality that would preoccupy its author in all his writing to come.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Substantial and virile . . . purity, austerity and abstraction rise to a peak."  —The Nobel Prize Library

About the Author

Andre Gide was one of the most influential figures of 20th-century French thought. He had a prolific literary career, during which he wrote more than 50 books, including The Counterfeiters, The Immoralist, and the memoir The Notebooks of André Walter. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947.

Product Details

• Paperback: 94 pages
• Publisher: Peter Owen Ltd (August 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0720612160
• ISBN-13: 978-0720612165
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,297,494 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Andre's Travels, October 25, 2008

By 

Randy Keehn (Williston, ND United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Urien's Voyage (Peter Owen Modern Classics) (Paperback)

I have read a couple of books by Andre Gide and I wasn't overly impressed. I still have a copy of "The Counterfeiters" which, I understand, is more worthy of the author that the other two I read. I saw "Urien's Voyage" and opted to take another look. I came away again realizing that Gide goes in directions that I'm not that interested in following.

I could tell from this early work of his that Gide has a fertile mind as well as a descriptive style of writing. His issues with his sexuality are certainly present in this short work of his. It reads like a sort of "Oddysey" without the combat. Urien and his fellow travelers encounter many different things in their voyage and most of them are certainly worthy of comment. The final two pages seem out of style with the rest of the book but they are actually an essential part of understanding what Gide is trying to say. I tried following what he was trying to say but I eventually realized that I really wasn't all that interested.