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  PROMETHEUS
  ILLBOUND

  BY ANDRÉ GIDE


  LITERAL TRANSLATION FROM THE
  FRENCH BY
  LILIAN ROTHERMERE


  LONDON
  CHATTO AND WINDUS
  1919




PREFACE


The work of art is the exaggeration of an idea, says Gide in the
epilogue of the “Prometheus Illbound.” This is really the explanation
of the whole book and of many other books of Gide.

His world is a world of abstract ideas, under the action of which most
of his characters move as marionettes. “Time and space are the boards,
which, with the help of our minds, have been set up by the innumerable
truths of the universe as a stage for their own performances. And there
we play our parts like determined, convinced, devoted and voluptuous
marionettes.”

That is the reason why there is a determinist atmosphere in his books
and tha