Gide & Rosenberg Correspondence 1896-1934

It was in Florence, in 1896, that André Gide and Fedor Rosenberg met. Their friendship was so immediate and intense that the Russian orientalist accompanied Gide and his wife Madeleine for part of their honeymoon. Later, he regularly visited the Gides, particularly in Cuverville, and became a close friend of the writer’s inner circle. This friendship, largely conducted through letters, lasted until the death of “good Fedor” in June 1934.

This correspondence reveals an intimate side of Gide, ready to disclose his homosexuality to a correspondent who reciprocates in kind; it also offers a historical and cultural perspective on European literature and the circulation of ideas at the beginning of the 20th century. In the background of reflections on daily life, health, current projects, and literature, the First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution are also evoked, punctuated by temporary interruptions in the exchanges between the two men. While not all the letters could be recovered, nearly 350 correspondences are gathered here.

These thirty-eight years of dedicated exchange reveal the passionate dialogue between the “major contemporary” and his “most sensitive, reliable, and faithful friend.” Nikol Dziub is the recipient of the 2015 doctoral thesis prize from the University of Haute-Alsace and the 2019 Catherine Gide Foundation-Treilles Foundation Prize for her research project entitled “The Kremlin Cellars: Gide and the NRF Facing Russia.” Also a graduate of Kyiv University and the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, she is the author of two essays and some fifty articles. She has also edited about ten collective volumes.

Publisher’s website: https://presses.univ-lyon2.fr/product/show/gide-et-rosenberg/927