A thought-provoking novel about the contradictory nature of the human self.
How much more beautiful life would be, and how much more bearable our suffering would be, if we were content with only the real evils, ignoring the ghosts and monsters in our minds.
A priest in the Swiss Alps decides to adopt a blind girl, whose aunt has died and who has no other relatives to take care of her, to serve God by taking her to the home where he already has five dependent children. This decision not only causes astonishment among the household, but also triggers a series of other events, leading the priest to confuse Christian charity with sensual love and to suffer the consequences.
André Gide has based his works on the conflict between sin and desire, moral blindness, and the contradictory nature of the human self, and Pastoral Senfoni (Pastoral Symphony) is a profound and thought-provoking novel that serves as an introduction to the author’s world.
“Some people have found in their thoughts the secret of a serenity that is neither shallow nor easy. Gide’s secret lies in the fact that, in the midst of all his doubts, he never loses the pride of being human.”
Albert Camus
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ANDRÉ GIDE was born in Paris in 1869. He began his writing career in 1891 with Les Cahiers d’André Walter (The Notebooks of André Walter) and Le Traité du Narcisse (Treatise on Narcissus). These were followed by Worldly Blessings and New Blessings (1897). He published The Separate Road, one of his most important works, in 1902. Gide’s mastery as a writer, the clarity and clarity of his style, are in complete contradiction with the anxieties he reveals in his books on the one hand, and the complexity of his thoughts on the other. The Pastoral Symphony, a deeply moving and humane novel, was followed by The Counterfeiters (1925), considered Gide’s best work. In his works after this date, he emphasized social problems. He suggested moving away from all kinds of prejudices and avoiding blind adherence to established beliefs and ideas. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947. He died in 1951.
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ŞİRİN ETİK was born in Izmir. She completed her undergraduate studies in French and English Language and Literature at Hacettepe University. During her graduate studies at the Sorbonne Paris IV University, she worked on translation problems and linguistics. She lives in Istanbul and continues to edit and translate books.
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TITLE
Book Title: Pastoral Senfoni (Pastoral Symphony)
Author: André Gide
Translation: Şirin Etik
Publisher: Can Publishing
Array: Modern
Genre: Novel
Number of Pages: 80
