The Fruits of the Earth

Name: The Fruits of the Earth
ISBN: 9787532749690

André Gide / 盛澄华Shanghai Translation Publishing House · ChinaJun 2015

4.1

Word count: 55K words
Chapters: 14
ISBN: 9787532749690

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Summary

After traveling through North Africa and Italy, Gide composed this work in a lyrical vein, weaving together traditional forms—short poems, odes, and rondels—into a succession of poetic fragments. With his burning soul he responded to the blossoms and fruits of life, turning his sincere love wholly into songs of praise and verses of poetry. This book may be called Gide's most fervent spiritual monologue, and it has long been revered as nothing less than the "Bible of the restless generation."

Editor's review

The Fruits of the Earth is not a novel or philosophical treatise in the traditional sense; it is more a symphony of life written in prose poetry. In it Gide displays an almost burning passion and an extreme celebration of sensory experience and natural beauty. Reading it, you feel a strong questioning of established morality and social norms and a deep call for individual freedom and the impulse of life. Its prose has a rare density and heat; each passage is like a tempered aphorism, at once a feast for the senses and an adventure of thought. For readers new to Gide, The Fruits of the Earth is the best entry point to his core ideas. It reveals the motifs of his later works: the confrontation between sincerity and hypocrisy, the legitimacy of desire, the search for transcendence within rules. Its value lies not only in offering views but in offering a way of seeing the world and feeling life. In an age when daily life is increasingly surrounded by the virtual and abstract, its praise of the earth, sunlight, fruit, and the immediacy of the body has a subversive power to awaken dormant senses. This Shanghai Translation Publishing House edition captures precisely in translation the original's distinctive voice—at once fervent and restrained, exuberant and disciplined—and rewards repeated reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers seeking passion for life and sensory awakening
Explorers interested in existentialist or modernist literature
Those who feel constrained by rules and dogma and long for spiritual breakthrough
Literature lovers who appreciate poetic, aphoristic prose

Not a good fit for

Traditional novel readers expecting clear plot and characterization
Readers inclined to stable, conservative values who reject intense intellectual confrontation

Reading tips

There is no need to finish in one sitting; it suits browsing a few passages at a time, letting the ideas seep in naturally
While reading, engage your own sensory associations, linking the words to your memories and experience
Read alongside Gide's life and other works (such as The Immoralist and Strait Is the Gate) to understand the complexity and development of his thought

About the publisher

Shanghai Translation Publishing House China · Founded in 1978

Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.

版权信息
译序
一九二七年版原序
引言
卷一
卷二
卷三
卷四
卷五
卷六
卷七
卷八
颂歌（代尾声）
寄语

FAQ

What is the theme of this book?

Its core theme advocates a way of life based on sensory experience, natural instinct, and individual sincerity, opposing all hypocritical morality and social norms that suppress vitality, and emphasizing "living in the present" and "becoming yourself."

Why is the book called The Fruits of the Earth?

"Fruits of the earth" symbolize the most primal, authentic nourishment from the land. They refer to experiences and truths that directly satisfy the soul's hunger and awaken vitality, rather than abstract, rigid doctrine.

What is the relationship between this book and Gide himself?

The Fruits of the Earth is a concentrated outpouring of Gide's early thought, strongly autobiographical and manifesto-like. It set the intellectual tone for his lifelong writing—the eternal pursuit of freedom, sincerity, and change—and foreshadowed his later rebellions and explorations in morality and religion.

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About the author

André Gide Author · France · 1869–1951

André Gide was a French writer, born in Paris in 1869 and died in Paris in 1951. His work spans novels, essays, and literary criticism, with representative titles including The Immoralist, Strait Is the Gate, La Symphonie pastorale, The Counterfeiters, and The Fruits of the Earth. These works often trace the moral struggles of their characters, written in restrained yet reflective prose. In 1947 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, which brought his literary standing wider international recognition. Gide is regarded as an important figure in twentieth-century French literature and has had a lasting influence on the psychological depiction and narrative forms of the modern novel. The library holds 70 of his works, spanning categories such as foreign literature, classic works, and social fiction, showing that his writing has long circulated among Chinese readers.

盛澄华 Author

Sheng Chenghua: public information is limited, and no clear record is available regarding his dates of birth and death, nationality, or educational background. What can be confirmed is that nine works under his name are held in this library, commonly classified under foreign literature and world classics. Judging from his representative works, he is mainly associated with foreign literary works such as The Fruits of the Earth, A Life, and The Counterfeiters, involving classics by French-language writers including André Gide and Guy de Maupassant. These works are mostly novels or prose narratives, centered on individual destiny, moral dilemmas, and spiritual exploration, with a style that emphasizes delicate psychological portrayal and narrative pacing. Several titles appear in multiple editions in the library, such as The Fruits of the Earth, A Life, and The Counterfeiters, among which A Life also has an illustrated collector's edition. Through his translation and editorial work, Sheng Chenghua has provided Chinese readers with reference editions of French literary classics, and his contribution lies mainly in the translation and dissemination of foreign literature.