Strait Is the Gate

Strait Is the Gate (French: La Porte Étroite) is a 1909 French novel written by André Gide. It was translated into English by Dorothy Bussy. It probes the complexities and terrors of adolescence and growing up. Based on a Freudian interpretation, the story uses the influences of childhood experience and the misunderstandings that can arise between two people. Strait Is the Gate taps the unassuaged memory of Gide's unsuccessful wooing of his cousin between 1888 and 1891. Much of the story is written as an epistolary novel between the protagonist Jerome and his love Alissa. Much of the end of the novel is taken up by an exploration into Alissa's journal that details most of the events of the novel from her perspective.