André Gide

Dans Folioplus classiques, le texte intégral, enrichi d'une lecture d'image, écho pictural de l'oeuvre, est suivi de sa mise en perspective organisée en six points : mouvement littéraire : La crise du roman, genre et registre : Le roman à l'épreuve du miroir, l'écrivain à sa table de travail : Un roman carrefour, groupement de textes : La mise en abyme, chronologie : André Gide et son temps, fiche : Des pistes pour rendre compte de sa lecture.

Les faux-monnayeurs

"- Depuis quelque temps, des pièces de fausse monnaie circulent. J'en suis averti. Je n'ai pas encore réussi à découvrir leur provenance. Mais je sais que le jeune Georges - tout naïvement je veux le croire - est un de ceux qui s'en servent et les mettent en circulation. Ils sont quelques-uns, de l'âge de votre neveu, qui se prêtent à ce honteux trafic. Je ne mets pas en doute qu'on abuse de leur innocence et que ces enfants sans discernement ne jouent le rôle de dupes entre les mains de quelques coupables aînés."

Les Faux-Monnayeurs

Erifili G

5/5, because it would feel wrong to give it any less.

I read Les Faux-monnayeurs (translated as The Counterfeiters in English) for school, and I went into it with a pretty pessimistic attitude considering it was a required read and I had to read it in French (I tend to read french books slower). But, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised; not only did my attitude towards it change only a few pages in, but I ended up really loving it. 

Les Faux-monnayeurs was the first book I read by Gide. so I wasn't familiar with his style or brain. Needless to say both impressed me. This book is literarily challenging and controversial, working as a type of inception; in the novel, Gide's alter ego, the writer Edouard, is also writing a novel with the same title, characters and story. Before starting it, this had contributed to my hesitation, but luckily Gide presented everything in the least complicated manner possible. I really loved the characters and their stories, and, what I found to be the most remarkable, was that Gide used these characters to be honest. Les Faux-monnayeurs was a brutally honest book, that exposed people in an undeniably true and uncomfortably transparent way. All throughout the book, Gide was using his characters to express bold ideas in a way that just makes his Nobel Prize completely expected. This is not a book for every type of reader, and it shouldn't be considered a classic that everyone should read in their lives; I can see how many readers could misunderstand it or find it boring and lacking, but I also think that the ones who appreciate it will do so profoundly. 

If you like literature and philosophy and are willing to be confronted with your own deepest thoughts and feelings, then I definitely recommend this book.