The Counterfeiters by André Gide. Translated by Dorothy Bussy.
André Gide kept a journal while writing The Counterfeiters . In it, he quotes from a newspaper clipping about the trial of a gang of counterfeiters: When the judge asked Fréchaut if he had been a member of the Luxembourg "gang": "Let's call it 'the coterie,' your honor," he replied warmly. "It was a gathering where we dealt in counterfeit money, I don't deny that; but we were principally concerned with questions of politics and literature." It is clear that Gide had Fréchaut's description in mind when he composed his novel. It is, indeed, about counterfeiting ("I don't deny that") but it is about many other things as well. The novel is usually classed as "modernist." The primary reasons for that would seem to be the many plots and stories, some of which remain unresolved, that crisscross through its pages (including a novel within the The Counterfeiters called, of course, "The Counterfeiters," a...