New read-along – The Counterfeiters
by André Gide
Dear classics readers,
I am delighted to announce our upcoming May read-along of Les Faux-Monnayeurs (The Counterfeiters), the experimental masterpiece by the Nobel prize-winning André Gide – first serialised in Paris in 1925, one hundred years ago.
What is it?
The Counterfeiters is set in Paris. It’s a nihilistic examination of human weakness and sexuality from the controversial Nobel Prizewinner André Gide. It’s the only book he wrote that he described as a novel. The experimental narrative is assembled from different characters’ perspectives, in a literary form of Cubism. Characters include an author, Édouard, who is writing a novel called The Counterfeiters, a gang of schoolboys who are forging gold coins and several openly bisexual and gay figures. In 1999, Le Monde named it one of the 100 Books of the Twentieth Century.
Why are we reading it now?
Les Faux-Monnayeurs was first serialised over five monthly issues of the Nouvelle Revue Française in Paris, 1925, so this year marks its centenary. The Nouvelle Revue Française paperback edition was also dated 1925 but only released for sale in February 1926.
How will we read it?
The Counterfeiters is 350 pages long in my Penguin edition (see below). It has three parts and 45 chapters.
I suggest we read the novel over six weeks:
We’ll start reading on Friday 2nd May.
On Friday 9th May we’ll discuss Part One, Chapters 1-9.
On Friday 16th May, we’ll discuss Part One, Chapters 10-18.
On Friday 23rd May we’ll discuss Part Two, Chapters 1-7.
On Friday 30th May we’ll discuss Part Three, Chapters 1-6.
On Friday 6th June we’ll discuss Part Three, Chapters 7-13.
On Friday 13th June we’ll discuss Part Three, Chapters 14-20.
Our posts and conversations will all be collected here.
Which translation should I read?
As far as I know, only one English translation of The Counterfeiters has been published, by Dorothy Bussy in 1927. It is available in different editions in the UK and the US.
The translator Dorothy Bussy was the older sister of Lytton Strachey. She published one novel of her own, the pseudonymous Olivia, a semi-autobiographical same-sex love story about an English girl’s infatuation with her French finishing school teacher. Dorothy Strachey married the French painter Simon Bussy in 1903 and later fell in love with André Gide. She translated most of Gide’s work into English.
What if I don’t want to read it?
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Looks so good! I’m reading Anna Karenina with you, also fighting with Middlemarch (I’m enjoying it but find it difficult for a non-native English speaking person) and I don’t know if I could do this to. But what the hell, I’m in !!😊