Les Caves du Vatican

This is a wonderful book. It is an elegantly (though not pretentiously) written work whose story is driven not only by an interesting plot but also by very interesting and strange characters. This is one of my favorite books. A classic.

I came to this after reading, and loving, The Immoralist, and I was not disappointed. In this novel, Gide seems to be continuing the examination of personal responsibility to others and oneself--there's very little logical reason to avoid that which society considers "bad," (murder, stealing) so long as there is a good chance of anonymity. This sort of question has continued relevance to a modern audience, and Gide offers some interesting outcomes. As for the translation, admittedly never having read the French, it seemed a bit wordy compared to the economy of version The Immoralist I'm familiar with. However as I have not compared the styles of the novels in their original tongue I can't say if this discrepancy lies there or with the different translators.

the writing was wonderful, it flowed beautifully between characters and the plots, you didn;t have to go back 20 pages to remember who was whom, (i think thats correct english) it was funny and the characters were believable,i thoroughly enjoyed the book....

Anything but common place writing ... so original in thinking. I also loved the hop-scotching through all the European cities and meeting all the characters he ran into. Find it interesting that his books at the time became banned by the Vatican, but werent so many. Great read.

Gide's _Lafacdio's Adventures_ is much more than a book about a young man who commits a senseless crime. It is also far more than just a couple of mascarading crooks who concoct a story of the kidnapping of a high church official as a means of bilking a naive gentleman of his money. Gide has written a marvelously twisty-even slightly twisted-and often hillariously funny crime novel. What places _Lafcadio's Adventures_ far above that genre is its emphasis on the meaning of friendship, loyalty, genuine caring and a real sense of responsibility for another human being that can and often does transform people. Gide takes an interesting look at a social outsider in a fresh and humane way. The result is a truer and far more complex and sympathetic picture of such an individual. Even if I could not quite make out his motivations there is still much to think about in Gide's brilliant study of saints and sinners.