Gide and Justice: The Immoralist in the Palace of Reason

Abstract

Gide’s writings on the French justice system attracted little attention from critics either at the time of their publication or in the years following his death. This is unfortunate for four reasons: 1) Gide’s publications on the justice system, particularly his Souvenirs de la cour d’assises, are a rare example of commentary on the French system for the general public written by a layman; 2) his reports on infamous crimes, L’Affaire Redureau and La Séquestrée de Poitiers, offer insight both into the judicial process and public perception of crime; 3) these texts, taken together with his “Faits divers,” allow him to develop a subtle critique of rationalism and the distorted view rationalism gives of human motivations; and 4) these texts provide a better understanding of the psychological motivations of some of Gide’s key fictional characters and shed light on recurrent themes, specifically hypocritical bourgeois codes of conduct.

Les mœurs sont l’hypocrisie d’une nation.

—Honoré De Balzac