r Nobel Prize winner Andre Gide died 50 years ago.
The Pastoral symphonyis regarded as his most accomplished work. It tells the story of a Swiss pastor who is taken to an isolated farmhouse to give the last rites to an old woman. He discovers a blind idiot girl cowering in a corner of the hovel and decides to take her back to his own family.
The seeds are thus sown for a domestic tragedy. Read in five parts by Robert Glenister. Part 1. Abridged and produced by Chris Wallis