Strait is the gate =
Worth buying if: You appreciate Andre Gide’s precise psychological insight and moral dilemmas.
Skip it if: You expect plot-driven action rather than slow interior examination.
Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780837604534. The Amazon link uses this ISBN, so the product page should open to the edition shown here.
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Summary
This compact novel traces young Claude’s lifelong, unreciprocated devotion to his cousin Alissa, whose rigid idealism and religious scruples force a painful moral theater of renunciation and emotional exile.
Why this book now
Gide’s examination of duty, sexual restraint, and conscience still unsettles modern readers wrestling with sacrifice, identity, and literary confession.
30-second preview
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Best for readers who...
Good fit if you want...
- You appreciate Andre Gide’s precise psychological insight and moral dilemmas.
- You enjoy intimate French moral novels about obsession and self-denial.
- You expect plot-driven action rather than slow interior examination.
- You want an upbeat romance instead of Claude and Alissa’s austere tragedy.
- You need the newest edition, freshest examples, or the most current framing.
Decided it fits?
Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780837604534
Worth buying if: You appreciate Andre Gide’s precise psychological insight and moral dilemmas.
Skip it if: You expect plot-driven action rather than slow interior examination.
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.
Reader guide
Cues to help you decide faster.
Reading commitment
Light Short sit-downs
At 231 pages, the Bentley edition rewards steady reading: short chapters and dense interior monologue make it suited to thoughtful sessions over several evenings.
What stands out here
This Bentley Pub 1980 edition highlights Gide’s original moral realism and keeps the novel’s spare, elegiac prose intact for close reading.
Best way to approach it
Read slowly, focusing on Claude’s letters and interior reflections; annotate passages about Alissa’s piety and Gide’s ethical paradoxes to trace their emotional logic.
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Exact edition: ISBN-13 9780837604534
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.