Gide’s Essai sur Montaigne: an assessment

if there is one fact about Gide’s Essai sur Montaigne which is not in dispute, it is that it was intended to figure in a history of literature being prepared by André Malraux. Gide twice notes the fact in his diary at the time when he is working on the project. Albert Thibaudet corroborates it in an article written in advance of the date of publication of the Essai. ¹ Louis Martin-Chauffier confers upon it the authority of a painstaking and knowledgeable editor. ² Günter Krebber works it, with scholarly diligence, into a worthy study of Gide’s criticism. ³ It is as though the parable of the widow’s mites had run away with its audience. For the other fact which is just as certain is that, when the Tableau de la Littérature française at last appeared, ⁴ it did not include Gide’s Essai. ⁵