Shelton, Kristel J.

Chimères

The University of Kansas: Journals@KU

Two Novelists in The Counterfeiters: Gide and Edouard One of the most intriguing aspects of André Gide's navel, The Counterfeiters, is its characteristic "layering," the effect created by including a navel within a novel within a still larger novel. Gide writes about Edouard, a novel-ist who is writing about another novelist who is writing a navel entitled The Counterfeiters.. This complex texture should suggest to the readet enter-ing •the world of The Counterfeiters the danger of losing track of the overall effect and meaning intended by Gide. One of the first pitfalls encountered is the tendency to equate Gide and Edouard. Either because Edouard's navel appears as a miniature imitation of Gide's--the same title, similar characters and based on observations of the same events--or because Edouard's thoughts regard-ing his navel sound much like Gide's thoughts and actually supply the material for a large part of Gide's navel, this tendency to equate the two is tempting. But a better understanding of the entire novel can be achieved by exploring similarities and differences and, in the end, differentiating as clearly as possible between the intents and accomplishments of Gide, the master novelist, and Edouard, the fictional novelist. Moreover, issues arising from such an exploration lead us to con-sider Gide's views of reality, art. and the human condition. These issues are related to the heart of Gide's novel--the problem of counterfeit, as well as being related to the novel's broader context--twentieth-century literature as it deals with the modern consciousness in crisis. Germaine Brée and Margaret Guiton begin their 69 book, An Age of Fiction: Thè French Novel from Gide to Camus, by focusing upon one aspect of the crisis confronting Gide's generation: the reintegration of two different realms of reality, the subjective consciousness and the external environment,1 Awareness of this problem stems f rom the general trend toward phenomenology and the "sudden and violent rejection of all external standards of reality" as exemplif ied by the French navels of the twentieth century (Brée and Guiton, p. 5). The impelling quest for knowledge, together with the impossibility of returning to an unenlightened state regarding the powers of the human psyche, has contributed to a continuing study of the inner world of individual conscious-ness. The problem of reintegrating the inner and outer worlds has remained a persistent and perplexing concern of modern man, In the hope of touching upon this general problem as well as the problem of counterf eit, I return to the explora-tion of similarities and differences between Gide and Edouard, The similarities that I perceive between Gide and Edouard focus upon the following three tapies: f irst, the conception of the novel as the conflict between the reality of life and a person's vision . of life; secondly, the choice of "counterfeit" as the theme of their individual navels; and lastly, a basic agreement concerning the necessity for a novelist to become "depersonalized," Apparent similarities between statements made by Gide and Edouard relevant to these three topics are explained·by the fact that Edouard often voices ideas actually expressed by Gide in his journals, letters and less directly in his soties and récits. Gide acknowledges irt The Joùrnàl of "The Counterfeiters" that he is lending much of himself to Edouard.2 He often prefixes or concludes an exposition of an idea in it with a notation that Edouard should be made to say these words (Journal, 70 pp. 429 and 433). But a problem arises. Towards the end of the "First Notebook" of the Journal, Gide adroits that "this journal must become to some extent Edouard's novel" (Journal, p. 418). It is very difficult to establish to what extent this daily record is Gide's and to what extent it is Edouard's. Even a limited fusion of the journal with Edouard casts doubt upon its reliability as a tool for comparing Gide and Edouard. In ber book entitled Gide, Brée emphasizes this unreliable aspect of ~Journal of "The Counterfeiters." She quarrels with the opening of the "Second Notebook" (where Gide admits that he no longer understands what he wants) by painting to a "hidden, guiding intent" discernable in the novel.3 Also in the "Second Notebook" Gide iden-tifies the subject of the navel as the "effort of the novelist to make a book out of it all": "it all" being the event, the fact, the external datum (Journal, p. 425). While recognizing that this subject is one of Gide's main concerns, Brée clearly states that it is not the main subject of Gide's navel; rather, it is the subject of Edouard's never-to-be-written novel (Brée, p. 215). By considering the overall structure and character development of The Counterfeiters, Brée distin-guishes the heart of Gide 1s novel from that of Edouard's novei and establishes the ways in which Gide's novel encompasses, and even extends beyond, Edouard's attempts. I recognize the need to question the relia-bility of The Journal of "The Counterf eiters" and support Brée's assertion concerning the need to look beyond bath the Journal and Edouard's "novel" in order to comprehend more f ully the meaning of The Counterfeiters. But I do not agree with her overall suggestion that the Journal does not accurately convey Gide's thoughts and intents. She underplays the extent to which the Journal is 71 consistent with Gide's thoughts about life, reality, art and the novelist's task. I also see clear similarities between some of Edouard's statements and Gide's thoughts as expressed in the Journal. But by following Brée's suggestion to consider the overall structure, one begins to see the dif f erences between the directions that Gide and Edouard take from similar theoretical prernises. The most obvious difference between Gide and Edouard is the final outcorne of their separate atternpts--Gide successfully cornpletes his navel, whereas the first sentence of Edouard's navel will most likely never be written. The reasons for Edouard's inability to write touch upon the three tapies mentioned earlier. Edouard falls short of the requirements laid out by the concept of the navel, the dernand for authenticity and the necessity for "depersonalization"--ideas subscribed to by bath Gide and Edouard. Edouard reveals the "deep-lying subject" of his never-to-be-written navel as "the rivalry between the real world and the representation of it that we make to ourselves."4 In other passages in The Counterfeiters, Edouard repeats the same idea in different words: he speaks of the struggles between "the facts presented by reality and the ideal reality" (p. 188), between what reality offers and what one desires to make of it (p. 188) · and between the world of outside appearances and one's interpretations of that world (p. 205). Although "struggle" is presented as the problem of the artist, its import extends into the lives of all human beings. Edouard points out that this rivalry is "the drama of our lives" (The Cotinter-feiters, p. 205). The journals, letters and other fictional works of Gide demonstrate his awareness of the discrepancy between outer reality and inner per-ception. Thus, the serious theme that Gide plays with in Les Caves du Vatican illustrates "the 72 basic discordance introduced into life by human consciousness" (Brée and Guiton, p. 33). Moreover, Gide's works often deal with the "psychological effects caused by the discovery of an autonomous outer reality" (Brée, p. 215). Gide acknowledges the reality of the autonomous workings of the world around us as well as the reality of the individual self. The essential characteristic of this auto-nomous reality is the unaesthetic and ambiguous aspect of events and facts that continually under-mine man's attempts to form absolute ideas by which to govern the external environment. Absolute ideas limit a person's expectations and therefore distort bis perceptions of reality. Gide also recognizes the reality of the indi-vidual self with its uniquely human capacity for perceiving, ordering and representing outside reality all somewhat independently of that reality itself. Because they must perceive and order the external world of facts, events, abjects and people, all humans are potential fabricators of fiction. The manner in which a person perceives and reintegrates the self and outer reality is open to evaluation in terms of authenticity. His per-ception is judged when he is brought face to face with the ambiguous and autonomous reality. Preconceived notions and absolute ideas produce counterfeit living, because they limit a person's view of reality, perhaps blinding him even to the existence of a reality beyond bis personal or culturally implanted ideas. Gide criticizes civilization for presenting "a screen of° beliefs and rules" that separates the individual self from the world of reality, thereby producing a counter-feit image of reality in the individual's mind. It is possible for an individual to reject this counterfeit image of reality, if he can detect the f ictional element in this representation of reality. The use of these words--fiction, representa-73 tion, appearance, reality, counterfeit--becomes very difficult when I turn to consider imaginative literature. Novels are traditionally referred to as fiction and novelists are thought to be people who transform experience into fiction. But for Gide, the real novelist is a destroyer of fictional worlds; he strips away distorted representations of reality that are based only on appearances from a limited viewpoint. The word "fiction" for Gide of ten ref ers to a way of living and connotes a certain quality of counterfeit. Therefore, I must distinguish between Gide's concepts of art and of fiction. In criticizing f ictional modes of living, Gide is by no means negating the possibility of art and imaginative creation. In his own life he tended to equate outer reality or appearances with fiction and struggled with this "incapacity to f eel life as real" (Brée and Guiton, p. 21). For Gide, "life was really subsidiary to literature" (Brée, p. 13). Literature is a more effective means of approaching the real world--more effective than superficial interpretations ordinarily encountered in one's life. Literature provides the opportunity for experimenting with innumerable ways of living. The adventures of the imagination and mind can be pushed to their limits, governed only by artistic and intellectual requirements. Brée writes that · for Gide, "art simply plays with the substance of life; it proposes, whereas life 'disposes'" (Brée, p. 6). The work of the imagination is to propose possibilities. For Gide this is not equivalent to the fabrication of fiction because imaginative creation does not necessarily imply counterfeit. At one point Gide States that "there is really no possible counterfeit in art" (Brée, p. 250). In this sense Gide is clearly distinguishing between the realms of art and of life. The results of f ollowing a preconceived notion or absolute idea in art are not nearly as disastrous as the 74 consequences of doing so in real life. Life does not tolerate counterfeit; it always presents the individual with a puzzling and uncompromising reality that is capable of demolishing fictions. Even though Gide never confused the realms of literature and of life, he did not deny that the two realms interact in complex and subtle ways. Reality is the raw material of art; the facts are its starting points. The imagination, after all, must play with something. The raw materials undergo great transformations in the bands of the · artist. An analogy based on this concept of the novelist's task demonstrates several subtle connections that Gide makes between life and literature. The novelist is searching for a form in which to arrange the materials that he has abstracted from reality; similarly, every human being organizes his perceptions of outer reality in order to reintegrate his individual conscious-ness with the external environment. The analogy serves to illustrate Gide's notion of authenticity. The ultimate criterion for authenticity is the test of reality. Brée notes that for Gide "to live, as to write a navel, is to undergo the test of reality" (Brée, p. 249). A worthwhile novel should ·show the inadequacy of fiction when con-fronted with life, just as life itself demonstrates the inadequacy of an individual's preconceived notions and ideas when confronted with uncompro-mising facts and events. The Counterfeiters measures up to Gide's own demands for a worthwhile novel. Gide challenges the various fictions created by each of his characters with the reality of facts and events. In the process he masters an authentic reconstruc-tion of reality; the novel's overall structure reproduces the essential characteristics of reality: the ambiguous and unaesthetic qualities. This structural imitation of the nature of reality contrasts markedly with representations 75 that merely describe appearances of reality. Brée distinguisbes between Edouard and Gide on the basis of what they each do with their recogni-tion of the rivalry between reality and interpre-tations of that reality. Edouard is content to use the rivalry as the subject of his nove!, whereas Gide actually reconstructs this aspect of the human condition by disclosing "little by little ••• a real situation despite its fictional, one might almost say·mythic, transformation in the characters' minds" (Brée, pp. 216-17). Because Gide in a sense rises above the struggle by accepting it as the basic structure of human experience, be is freer to experience a special joy in the discord between the real and the imaginary" (Brée, p. 6). But, as Bernard remarks, Edouard becomes increasingly worn by the struggle to reconcile two incompatible requirements when working with bis novel (The Counterfeiters, p. 189). Gide is also distinguished from Edouard by the criterion of authenticity. The two novelists do not equally withstand the test of reality; they do not equally demonstrate awareness of the essential characteristics of reality. The raw material constituting the two central events of Gide's novel was taken fromreality. The two events are described in separate newspaper clippings which drew Gide's attention: one dealing with the manu-facture of counterfeit coins and the other with the atrocious suicide of a schoolboy (The Counter-feiters, pp. 455-56). Edouard, in contrast, refuses to deal with these two central events. He belligerently dismisses reality, even while explaining to Bernard that he will not allow bis fictional novelist to abandon reality. Edouard prefers the idea of a counterfeit coin to the disturbing reality of an actual counterfeit coin presented by Bernard. Edouard opposes himself to Bernard, a realist who suggests starting from the fact and allowing the 76 idea "to corne of its own accord" (Counterfeiters, pp. 192 and 205). During this incident Bernard more accurately reflects Gide's own thoughts concerning the necessary confrontation of art with the facts of real life. Edouard's reaction to the suicide of Boris is even less justifiable than bis refusal to consider Bernard's counterfeit coin. He dismisses the reality of this by stating that it is "not accoun-ted for by a sufficiency of motive." Because be was not expecting and cannot understand Boris' suicide, be denies its reality. He adroits, "I accept reality coming as a proof in support of my thought, but not as preceding it" (Counterfeiters, p. 394). Once again Edouard insists on starting with an idea and clinging to it despite contra-dictions posed by factual events. He refuses to incorporate this one event in bis "pure" novel. Purity excludes compromises with the ambiguities of life. Brée describes the contrasting treatment of this event in the overall context of Gide's navel as follows: Gide planned bis navel so that it might approximate bis view of how a great many events corne about, not through a straight, relatively simple interplay of chance, situation and motivation. An event such as the death of Boris combines innumerable chance factors and, in each, a share of human weakness. Boris' fate is not the consequence of any one set of circumstances. It is made possible by the conjunction of several disparate and random series of activities. (Brée, p. 246) lier choice of words in this passage is revealing. She acknowledges that Gide had a certain view of 77 life that be was attempting to convey: it involves bis concept of reality as an ambiguous substance that requires many viewpoints in order to be more fully comprehended. In this respect Gide develops the idea of "depersonalization" as a necessary trait for a novelist. If one extends the analogy between literature and life to include the idea of "depersonalization," ~ny human being who desires to comprehend reality more fully needs to develop this quality. Depersonalization is related to Gîde's notion of dialogue which includes a perpetual state of open-mindedness, objective availability and curiosity in regard to all points of view. In The Journal of "The Counterfeiters" as well as in the words given to Edouard throughout the navel, Gide elaborates upon the concept of depersonali-zation. He speaks of the artistic value of multiple viewpoints and of a relativity of view-points. Brée states that the relativity of view-points contained in The Counterfeiters is "more essential to the work than any given character and was eventually transferred to Edouard" (Brée, p. 225). Although the goal of depersonalization (which is the creation of authentic reconstruction of reality) seems valid, I find that the ideas of depersonalization and relativity of viewpoints, as demonstrated by Edouard, contribute to self-destructive behavior. Whatever the case, Edouard ultimately fails in bis attempts toward self-abnegation and depersonalization. This is illus-.trated by bis comment on the suicide of Boris: bis main contention is that be was not expecting it. Edouard's relativity of viewpoints is reduced to bis singular viewpoint of reality, bis personal expectations of what reality should be. Edouard's counterfeiting serves to accentuate the authenticity of Gide's navel. The greatness of The Counterfeiters lies in Gide's ability to bridge the gap separating the realms of literature and '78 life. In a tightly controlled, aesthetic form, Gide is able to capture the essential ambiguous and unaesthetic qualities of real life. Equally amazing is the fact that, while acknowledging that the navel is only a view of reality shaped by his own individual perception, Gide enriches this view by interweaving a multiplicity of viewpoints throughout the navel. The Counterfeiters is an unusually authentic representation. of reality, because it incorporates the essential characteris-tics of reality and provides an intriguing multi-plicity of views by which the reader is able to consider the facts and events presented. KRISTEL J. SHELTON UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS NOTES 1 Germaine Brée and Margeret Guiton, An Age of Fiction: The French Novel from Gide to Camus (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1957), p. 15. All further references to this work appear in the text. 2 André Gide, The Journal of "The Counter-feiters," trans. Justin O'Brien, in "The Counter-feiters," with "The Journal of 'The Counter-feiters'" (New York: Vintage Press, 1973), p. 434. All further ref erences to this work ap~ear in the text. 3 Germaine Brée, Gide (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University PreSS:-1963), p. 227. All further references to this work appear in the text. 79 4 André Gide, The Counterfeiters, trans. Dorothy Bussy, in "The Counterfeiters," with "The Journal of 'The Counterfeiters'" (New York: Vintage Press, 1973), p. 205. All further references to this work appear in the text. 80 

Two Novelists in The Counterfeiters: Gide and Edourd

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