If It Die is a record of Gide's childhood & early manhood, up until his engagement to his cousin. Written twenty years afterwards, it is a deliberately uninhibited & revealing exercise as well as a masterpiece of French prose, thus fulfilling the two criteria Gide set himself
- to satisfy the demands of truth without neglecting the claims of art. It was said that in Gide 'les extr-mes touchent', a predisposition that was to characterize all his work, & these antitheses are clearly acknowledged & used in his narrative in order to add extra layers of resonance & meaning. At the same time If It Die is a delightful & memorable account by itself of childhood, of friendships & travels, & of sexual awakening.