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Translated from the French and with an introduction by
Wade Baskin
An important early work by a key French thinker, Urien’s
Voyage is a fantastic allegorical account of a journey
to the Arctic.
From the stagnant teeming waters of the Sargasso to the frozen
north, Gide charts in sensual, sumptuous prose the marvellous
journey of the Orion and the sexual and moral transformations
of its crew.
Largely overlooked on its first UK publication in 1964, Urien’s
Voyage is now regarded as a key work, articulating thepowerful
tension between sexuality and morality that would preoccupy
its author in all his writing to come.
Long out of print, Urien’s Voyage is the latest
unfairly neglected gem to be reissued by Peter Owen.
‘One of the most brilliant and original philosophical
writers of the twentieth century.’ — New York
Times
‘Sensual and erotic, even decadent.’ — Discovering
World History
‘Substantial and virile . . . purity, austerity and abstraction
rise to a peak.’ — The Nobel Prize Library
‘Sensuality, sexuality and pride . . . a work of art.’
— Statesman
‘All of French thought in these past thirty years must
be defined in relation to Gide.’ — Jean-Paul Sartre
ANDRÉ GIDE (1869—1951) is one of the most influential
figures of twentieth-century French thought. He had a prolific
literary career, during which he wrote more than fifty books,
including The Immoralist, The Counterfeiters
and the memoir The Notebooks of André Walter
(which is also published by Peter Owen). He was awarded the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947. |
