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babybatx's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Absolutely disgusting main character.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Slavery, and Misogyny
siiriainen's review
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pedophilia
emirhanaslan's review
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Colonisation, Blood, and Pedophilia
Minor: Classism, Death, Incest, Medical content, and Terminal illness
marymagsalin's review against another edition
around like a quarter through, I lost interest after learning that Gide self-identified as a pederast. my expectations going in was that it was a novel where the protagonist falls down the path of the perverse and that it would be a compelling and dark character study. i love unreliable narrators and moral ambiguity in novels, but i have to admit it's hard reading a book after realizing the author explicitly not ONLY identifies with the rationalizations the protagonist makes of his own actions, but embraces it as a wholly good thing. what absolute trash.
from his own journal: "That such loves can spring up, that such relationships can be formed, it is not enough for me to say that this is natural; I maintain that it is good; each of the two finds exaltation, protection, a challenge in them; and I wonder whether it is for the youth or the elder man that they are more profitable."
and a different entry (i'm sorry): "But what name then am I to give the rapture I felt as I clasped in my naked arms that perfect little body, so wild, so ardent, so sombrely lascivious? For a long time after Mohammed had left me, I remained in a state of passionate jubilation, and though I had already achieved pleasure five times with him I renewed my ecstasy again and again, and when I got back to my room in the hotel, I prolonged its echoes until morning."
from wikipedia: Gide's novel Corydon, which he considered his most important work, erects a defense of pederasty.
in general i like to think that even if i despise the author, i can still derive something of value from their work, but i don't care. i do not care to read any of his shit. and mind you, i'm not saying that the act of reading this book is bad, this is just my personal limit.
from his own journal: "That such loves can spring up, that such relationships can be formed, it is not enough for me to say that this is natural; I maintain that it is good; each of the two finds exaltation, protection, a challenge in them; and I wonder whether it is for the youth or the elder man that they are more profitable."
and a different entry (i'm sorry): "But what name then am I to give the rapture I felt as I clasped in my naked arms that perfect little body, so wild, so ardent, so sombrely lascivious? For a long time after Mohammed had left me, I remained in a state of passionate jubilation, and though I had already achieved pleasure five times with him I renewed my ecstasy again and again, and when I got back to my room in the hotel, I prolonged its echoes until morning."
from wikipedia: Gide's novel Corydon, which he considered his most important work, erects a defense of pederasty.
in general i like to think that even if i despise the author, i can still derive something of value from their work, but i don't care. i do not care to read any of his shit. and mind you, i'm not saying that the act of reading this book is bad, this is just my personal limit.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pedophilia
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