Immoraliste, L'. Novel by André Gide, published 1902 and termed by him a récit, being narrated in the first person by the main protagonist. After a nearfatal illness while on honeymoon in North Africa, Michel is obsessed with his vision of an authentic inner self previously stifled by culture, custom, and morality. He destroys his wife Marceline in his pursuit of a higher set of values which are redolent of the Nietzschean superman but which in reality are a pretext for egoism and a latent homosexuality. Telling his story after her death becomes an attempt at self-justification.
[David Walker]
