THE STORY: The New York Times wrote: “THE IMMORALIST is an admirable piece of work…It is the story of a scrupulous and pleasant young man who marries a neighborhood girl against his best judgment. Over his head hangs the memory of a scandal at school when he was eleven. He has never dared hope that he is free from the 'abominable crime’ for good. But he marries her in desperation. The rest of THE IMMORALIST describes the slow destruction of the marriage during the year they live in a corrupt village in North Africa. For him it is a joyless descent into a segregated and hated society. She, in turn, faces the loneliness of a woman who has offered love that cannot be accepted.” The wife having learned that she is to bear a child returns to France, where her husband follows her, in the hope of finding in his old home one place where his own kind will not seek him out. Together the two of them face their future, armed only with their own courage and strength.
Based on the novel by Andre Gide.
