At the peak of his career, after having established himself as an accomplished writer, astute moraliste, and the foremost spokesperson of his generation for personal freedom and self-realization, Gide became aware, first, that his particular brand of bourgeois individualism was becoming increasingly irrelevant in the contemporary world and, second, that social commitment and even revolution could serve as a powerful source of inspiration and self-renewal. Over a ten-year period that began in the 1920s and ended with his public break with the Soviet Union in 1936, Gide the committed...