André Gide, Eugène Rouart, and le retour à la terre
243
“Songe que tu vas probablement être obligé de mettre de l’argent à La
Roque si tu veux que ça marche bien” (GR, I, p. 397, 27 May 1897).
However, the extent of Gide’s dissatisfaction can be seen in the
apologetic letter Rouart wrote to him in March 1898:
J’ai vu Claudel, il paraît que ça marche à La Roque: un peu de dépenses c’est vrai,
mais vers quelles économies industrielles et superbes marches-tu? […] Claudel
s’intéresse beaucoup à la chose, je l’ai bien vu à plusieurs indices, et fait marcher
Désauney qui grogne un peu. (GR, I, p. 460, 10 March 1898)
This Désauney, Gide’s bailiff or farm manager, would subsequently
turn out to have been operating some extensive embezzlement scams
at Gide’s expense, so in drawing attention to his role Claudel was trying to deal with the principal causes of the financial problems that La
Roque was giving rise to. But Gide seemed unconvinced as to the effectiveness of the Grignon expert; in July 1898, Rouart had to promise
he would speak firmly to Claudel. For his part, Rouart hangs onto the
hope that his intervention has not caused more trouble than it was
worth: in 1899 he would finally feel able to write: “Je suis ravi que
cela aille bien à La Roque, je serai heureux de te voir accroître les
revenus par ton faire valoir et ne pas t’avoir été néfaste en cela” (GR,
I, p. 522, 19 May 1899).
The story continues, with more than its fair share of twists and
turns; and it was only in 1905, ten years after his mother’s death and
Rouart’s initial intervention, that Gide could finally get rid of the financial burden by selling off the estate (in the novel Michel, soon impatient with the prudence and rationality required of farm
management, after having been caught poaching on his own land by
Charles now grown distastefully mature and sensible, sells up much
more quickly). By this time Rouart was no less relieved than the
owner himself, for he had been nursing some guilt about having
pushed Gide, out of a somewhat misguided enthusiasm for the latest
technical and managerial methods, into the ill-considered strategy that
Gide had consoled himself with denouncing in L’Immoraliste:
“J’espère que La Roque te donnera moins d’ennuis à l’avenir – j’ai
toujours le regret de t’avoir poussé à faire de la gestion directe” (GR,
II, p. 223, 31 October 1905).
So in the same year that Jules Méline published his key book,
Le Retour à la terre, Gide was actually distancing himself from the
spade-work, so to speak. It was undoubtedly a relief to him to be able
243
“Songe que tu vas probablement être obligé de mettre de l’argent à La
Roque si tu veux que ça marche bien” (GR, I, p. 397, 27 May 1897).
However, the extent of Gide’s dissatisfaction can be seen in the
apologetic letter Rouart wrote to him in March 1898:
J’ai vu Claudel, il paraît que ça marche à La Roque: un peu de dépenses c’est vrai,
mais vers quelles économies industrielles et superbes marches-tu? […] Claudel
s’intéresse beaucoup à la chose, je l’ai bien vu à plusieurs indices, et fait marcher
Désauney qui grogne un peu. (GR, I, p. 460, 10 March 1898)
This Désauney, Gide’s bailiff or farm manager, would subsequently
turn out to have been operating some extensive embezzlement scams
at Gide’s expense, so in drawing attention to his role Claudel was trying to deal with the principal causes of the financial problems that La
Roque was giving rise to. But Gide seemed unconvinced as to the effectiveness of the Grignon expert; in July 1898, Rouart had to promise
he would speak firmly to Claudel. For his part, Rouart hangs onto the
hope that his intervention has not caused more trouble than it was
worth: in 1899 he would finally feel able to write: “Je suis ravi que
cela aille bien à La Roque, je serai heureux de te voir accroître les
revenus par ton faire valoir et ne pas t’avoir été néfaste en cela” (GR,
I, p. 522, 19 May 1899).
The story continues, with more than its fair share of twists and
turns; and it was only in 1905, ten years after his mother’s death and
Rouart’s initial intervention, that Gide could finally get rid of the financial burden by selling off the estate (in the novel Michel, soon impatient with the prudence and rationality required of farm
management, after having been caught poaching on his own land by
Charles now grown distastefully mature and sensible, sells up much
more quickly). By this time Rouart was no less relieved than the
owner himself, for he had been nursing some guilt about having
pushed Gide, out of a somewhat misguided enthusiasm for the latest
technical and managerial methods, into the ill-considered strategy that
Gide had consoled himself with denouncing in L’Immoraliste:
“J’espère que La Roque te donnera moins d’ennuis à l’avenir – j’ai
toujours le regret de t’avoir poussé à faire de la gestion directe” (GR,
II, p. 223, 31 October 1905).
So in the same year that Jules Méline published his key book,
Le Retour à la terre, Gide was actually distancing himself from the
spade-work, so to speak. It was undoubtedly a relief to him to be able