Strait is the Gate: Andre Gide

A delicate boy growing up in Paris, Jerome Palissier spends many summers at his uncle`s house in the Normandy countryside, where the whole world seems `steeped in azure`. There he falls deeply in love with his cousin Alissa and she with him. But gradually Alissa becomes convinced that Jerome`s love for her is endangering his soul. In the interests of his salvation, she decides to suppress everything that is beautiful in herself - in both mind and body.

A devastating exploration of aestheticism taken to extremes, Strait is the Gate is a novel of haunting beauty that stimulates the mind and the emotions.