This is the story of a man’s rebellion against social and sexual conformity. The narrator is Michela rich, young, agnostie scholar who has just married and gone to stay with his wife in Algeria. Finding that he has tuberculosis, he gradually changes his life, abandonng the aspects of morality which restrict him, and following his own wants and needs.

This development is the author’s theme, but it does not obscure the other characters in the novel Michel’s wife Marceline, various members of Parisian society, the youths on his estate in the country, and Arab boys.

The problems which are posed in The Immoralist are ones which exercised Gide himself in his own life-how deep is the protective veneer of civilization, and, to what extent should a man follow his own desires when they conflict with society?