David H. Walker
246
plaines de la Mitidja et du Sahel à présent sont apprivoisées”.
22 Moreover, if Gide knows this to be so, it is because he is well-acquainted
with some of the men who did the work. Claudel at this point is actually farming an estate in North Africa, implementing François Berthault’s research into reclaiming and cultivating the salt plains of
L’Habra.
23 As for Gide, he is happy to leave the digging to others,
rather more concerned, at this stage, to stress what is left to do for
writers and intellectuals setting out to explore and cultivate the figurative “badlands” of the human spirit.
___________________________
22 Gide, “Nationalisme et littérature”, p.197.
23 See GR, II, pp. 197, 199: letters of November 1904.
246
plaines de la Mitidja et du Sahel à présent sont apprivoisées”.
22 Moreover, if Gide knows this to be so, it is because he is well-acquainted
with some of the men who did the work. Claudel at this point is actually farming an estate in North Africa, implementing François Berthault’s research into reclaiming and cultivating the salt plains of
L’Habra.
23 As for Gide, he is happy to leave the digging to others,
rather more concerned, at this stage, to stress what is left to do for
writers and intellectuals setting out to explore and cultivate the figurative “badlands” of the human spirit.
___________________________
22 Gide, “Nationalisme et littérature”, p.197.
23 See GR, II, pp. 197, 199: letters of November 1904.