Andre Gide is one of the most representative of twentieth- century French writers. His L'Immoraliste is, in many respects, the most moving and imaginative of his works. The situations depicted are vividly concrete and rich in suggestion. It raises problems of responsibility and freedom, experience and understanding, ethics and action, truth and misrepresentation, and sincerity and rationalization. The subtle underlying interplay of form and intent permits interpretation on several levels according to the intellectual maturity of the reader. The extensive beginning essay in English is designed to alert readers to the many provocative facets of the novel. The editors' notes and vocabulary are never perfunctory; they illuminate, orient, stimulate.