A Protestant Air focuses on the Protestant connection linking three intellectual giants of twentieth-century French thought: André Gide, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Roland Barthes. All three came from a Protestant background and thus shared a common marginality in a nation culturally marked by Catholicism, one that profoundly shaped their personalities, thinking, and literary careers. When Gide received the Nobel Prize in 1947, he declared that if he had represented anything as a writer, it was the "spirit of protestation." Clémentine Fauré-Bellaïche explores the filiation that this spirit weaves between Gide, Sartre, and Barthes. She shows how their Protestant difference, confronted with France's Catholicity, informed their posture as writers, their conceptualization of literature, and their elaboration of the figure of the French intellectual as a counterauthority, with a distinctive positioning vis-à-vis the individual and the institution. As such, A Protestant Air examines the religious underpinnings of twentieth-century letters and politics, their interaction with the secularization of French society, and, more broadly, the historical and philosophical relationship between the Protestant ethos and modernity itself. Clémentine Fauré-Bellaïche makes a compelling case for rereading Gide, Sartre, and Barthes through the lens of a Protestant ethos. Anchored in French literary history and intellectual thought, A Protestant Air makes a significant contribution to twentieth-century French studies, comparative literature, literary theory and philosophy, and religious studies. -- Sara Kippur, author of New York Nouveau An original contribution to literary and cultural studies of three prominent French intellectuals, A Protestant Air is beautifully written and convincing, and it will appeal not only to readers interested in Gide, Sartre, and Barthes but also to those exploring the relationship between Christianity and modern literature in general. -- François Noudelmann, author of The Philosopher's Touch An original contribution to literary and cultural studies of three prominent French intellectuals, A Protestant Air is beautifully written and convincing, and it will appeal not only to readers interested in Gide, Sartre, and Barthes but also to those exploring the relationship between Christianity and modern literature in general. -- François Noudelmann, author of The Philosopher's Touch Cleìmentine Faureì-Bellache is Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Brandeis University.