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This book is a classic collection of essays by Andre Gide, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and the enlightener of the modern free spirit. It completely contains two important masterpieces, "Grain of the Earth" and "New Grain". Gide challenged the boring dogma with a very tense writing style, and issued the awakening words of "experience rather than think". He called on people to break free from the prisons of concepts and the past, shift from abstract philosophy to concrete senses - let the caress of the wind and the coolness of the water become the food to reshape themselves, and regain their pure perception of the world. "I hate consistency more than inconsistency." Gide's declaration reminds everyone that the true meaning of life does not lie in endless trade-offs, but in unreserved experience.

An epoch-making classic by Gide, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and "the great rebel in the literary world of the 20th century". The twenty-eight-year-old Gide was greatly shocked when he traveled to North Africa, Italy, Spain and southern France. He deeply felt that everything he knew before was just a shackles of the soul, so he wrote "Food of the Earth" feverishly, trying to break away from the mental prison and break the overcorrected and unrealistic writing style at that time. His thoughts are frank and unrestrained, defying tradition, praising life and nature, and praising desire and love. Many years later, the sixty-six-year-old Gide, after experiencing the torment of love and separation, life and death, once again entered the ideological realm that was deeply shocked at that time, and tried to write "New Food" in response to his works. Find food for your soul and decide for yourself how to live your life? I always hold out hope for the new light until the end of the night; I have not yet looked forward to the light, but I am still looking forward to it; I know where the morning light will appear. There is no doubt that the whole people are making preparations; from the top of the tower, I can already hear the noise in the market place. Dawn is coming! The jubilant people have already stepped forward to welcome the rising sun.

"The Narrow Gate" depicts the swing between two hearts between earthly love and spiritual belief. Jerome and Alyssa loved each other deeply, but in order to jointly pursue a more holy spiritual goal, they had to suppress their passionate love for each other, which eventually led to the disappearance of their love. Gide once said that he had put his best stuff in "The Narrow Gate" - about the way to truly achieve happiness.

In "The Narrow Gate", Gide pushes the mystical experience in love to the extreme, telling us a love story that is pure and hot, but also contains boundless loneliness and infinite bitterness. Jérôme and his cousin Alyssa have been sweethearts since childhood and have been in love with each other since childhood. When love sprouts, he and she love each other secretly, with all their innocence and enthusiasm, and they just want to become better people for each other. The two consciously put on the robes of ascetics, took their lover as their only guide, and tried their best to climb the rugged and narrow road to the peak of virtue. However, the more connected the hearts are, the more separated the bodies are...

This book is a collection of various texts in which Gide recommended Dostoevsky as "the greatest writer" and is a representative work of his literary criticism. As a traitor, Gide took Tuoji as his confidant, because he not only questioned the existence of God, but also used the power of the "devil" to achieve the purpose of exposing the devil, ugliness, and sin.

"The Return of the Prodigal Son" consists of six texts, which are like prose poems, novels, and dramas, but the author calls them all "traités". The translator, Mr. Bian Zhilin, feels that the translation as "explanation" is not satisfactory. The materials of the six texts are all taken from myths, legends or fables in Greece and the Bible, and they are interpreted symbolically. There are books in books and paintings within paintings, layered and full of meanings. They fully reflect the unique aesthetic, artistic, religious and moral views of Gide, the most complex literary master of the 20th century. Each of the six texts has its own emphasis but complements each other. It can be regarded as Gide's most artistic spiritual autobiography.

"The Bad Guy" and "The Narrow Gate" can be called the "twin gems" in Gide's novels. The reason is that the protagonists of the two works embody completely opposite and symmetrical tendencies on moral issues: the protagonist of "The Bad Guy" abandons morality in order to pursue sensual enjoyment, while the protagonist of "The Narrow Gate" refuses worldly joy and happiness in order to maintain the virtue of the perfect Spring Festival. With great courage, Gide profoundly revealed the sharp and profound contradictions in his thoughts, with his fearless love for truth, and with his keen psychological insight, he presented various problems and situations of human nature.

The young Bernard has a sensitive and delicate character and is passionate about writing. He stumbled upon some hidden letters at home, which revealed that he was an illegitimate child. This shocked and angered him, so he chose to run away from home. By chance, Bernard met the writer Edward, traveled with him and became his secretary. During his trip, Edward has been conceiving and writing a new novel called "The Counterfeiters", which tells the story of a group of young students who use counterfeit currency to steal money and undermine social and commercial order. When they returned to Paris after their journey, they were surprised to find that the things described in the novel were happening in reality, and as the lies and self-deception spun by everyone surfaced, their lives were like the plot in "The Counterfeiter", being involved in an unpredictable storm and losing their true identity...