L’artiste et le « devoir absolu d’être un saint » Gide face au soleil de Claudel

The young Gide has found with Claudel, especially around 1905-1906, the ideal interlocutor in order to nurture his thought on holiness and art. Then, if Gide proves to be unable to really argue opposite to Claudel, The narrow Door (1909) as well as the later statements by Gide on the devilish characteristic of art or also on Mallarme’s holiness, about twenty years later, however may appear as many means for him to specify his position towards Claudel.