The will to harmony: Music in the novels of Andre Gide, Aldous Huxley and Thomas Mann

The first half of the twentieth century saw the publication of three novels whose musical dimension was readily apparent: André Gide's Les Faux-monnayeurs, Aldous Huxley's Point Counter Point and Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus. While the two arts had been brought together in many other works, these texts stand out as landmarks in the history of transposing musical techniques into novelistic writing.;In the analysis of Gide's novel, the description of its structure as musical will be called into question, since similar structures can be identified in at least two earlier texts; if Gide chose to describe only Les Faux-monnayeurs as having a fugal model, it might be because he was referring to more than just formal arrangements. In light both of traditional interpretations of the fugue and of Gide's own writings about music, particularly his response to Chopin, it is suggested that the fugue as a model of harmony is posited only to be denounced as untenable in the new historical context.;Similarly, Huxley announces his intention to "musicalize" fiction, and the modalities of accomplishing this project are clearly outlined and then applied in the novel. However, in this case as well, music is not limited to the formal level. On the contrary, two musical episodes in the novel repeat Gide's message and take it a step further: Bach's Suite in B minor suggests an alluring, yet clearly inadequate ideal of societal harmony, whereas Beethoven's Quartet in A minor introduces a specifically modern theme: the tragically solitary search for God and life's meaning. However, given this latter episode's function in the plot, it also allows, unexpectedly, a glimmer of hope that this shattered world might still have a chance to heal.;Finally, Mann's statement that the act of narration takes place in musical time will cast a clearer light on the role of music in all the texts considered. For Mann, music appears as a locus of interaction between art and history, a testing ground where old ideals are brought forth and shown to be outdated. Moreover, it is through music that he will demonstrate his new vision of the German fate, calling for a reformulation of the aesthetic function in the new cultural context.;The study of the novels takes us through two necessary detours. First, an overview of the interactions between music and literature, particularly in religious contexts, situates the subsequent analysis in relation to a tradition of establishing correspondences between words and notes in vocal music. Second, the nineteenth-century return of music to the centre of aesthetic preoccupations marks a renewal of aesthetic theory to which the novelists will appeal in order to define the role of music in their writing.;Beyond considering music as a source of innovative narrative techniques, the present study aims to establish the aesthetic and historical circumstances that determined three early twentieth-century writers' choice of music as the most adequate vehicle for their literary message.;Keywords: André Gide, Aldous Huxley, Thomas Mann, 20th -century novel, aesthetics, narrativity, interarts, music in literature, fugal structures, Theodor W. Adomo, Johann Sebastian Bach in literature, Ludwig van Beethoven in literature.