Strait Is the Gate

André Gide · 1869–1951 · France

Originally La Porte étroite (French)

Why it matters

A young woman's religious asceticism leads her to renounce the man she loves in the name of a punishing, self-denying virtue. Gide's austere counterpoint to The Immoralist's hedonism, and just as devastating.

At a glance

Restrained, diary-inflected prose builds a quietly devastating moral argument.