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The Mandarins (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) by [Simone de Beauvoir]

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Simone de Beauvoir

The Mandarins (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) Kindle Edition

by Simone de Beauvoir (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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A Harper Perennial Modern Classics reissue of this unflinching examination of post-war French intellectual life, and an amazing chronicle of love, philosophy and politics from one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century.

An epic romance, a philosophical argument and an honest and searing portrayal of what it means to be a woman, this is Simone de Beauvoir’s most famous and profound novel. De Beauvoir sketches the volatile intellectual and political climate of post-war France with amazing deftness and insight, peopling her story with fictionalisations of the most important figures of the era, such as Camus, Sartre and Nelson Algren. Her novel examines the painful split between public and private life that characterised the female experience in the mid-20th century, and addresses the most difficult questions of gender and choice.

It is an astonishing work of intellectual athleticism, yet also a moving romance, a love story of passion and depth. Long out of print, this masterpiece is now reissued as part of the Harper Perennial Modern Classics series so that a whole new generation can discover de Beauvoir’s magic.

Print length

828 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Fourth Estate
Publication date

Aug. 30 2018
File size

1285 KB
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Review

`A remarkable novel.' Iris Murdoch, Sunday Times`A dazzling panorama of the giants of the Left Bank.' New Statesman`The characters, especially the women, are uninhibited and sometimes predatory. The dialogues are salty, frank and realistic. The characters' amorous adventures are set down with microscopic exactitude.' Guardian`There are few, a very few, novels from which one comes away with the feeling of having travelled, experienced, learned... such a book is The Mandarins.' Bookman --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

About the Author

Simone de Beauvoir was born in Paris in 1908. She took a degree in philosophy at the Sorbonne in 1929, and was placed second to Jean-Paul Satre, with whom her name was to be inextricably linked for the next fifty years. De Beauvoir taught in Marseille and Rouen during the 1930s and in Paris during the war. After Liberation she emerged as one of the leading figures of the existentialist movement and with Satre, Camus and many others, was to set the course of Left Bank intellectual life for many decades thereafter. Simone de Beauvoir ‘s first novel, ‘She Came to Stay’, was published in 1943. The book explored a woman’s quest for moral and intellectual self-determination, a theme which was to run throughout all her work. Author of six novels, de Beauvoir won the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 1954 for ‘The Mandarins’. ‘The Second Sex’, her classic account of the status and nature of women, was published in 1949; hugely influential, it confirmed de Beauvoir’s role as a pioneer in the development of post-war feminism. Her other writings include her four-volume autobiography, ‘Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter’, ‘The Prime of Life’, ‘Force of Circumstance’, ‘All Said and Done’, and a moving account of her relationship with her dying mother, ‘A Very Easy Death’. In her later years de Beauvoir was actively involved in many socialist and feminist causes, and in 1975 was awarded the Jerusalem Prize for ‘writers who have promoted the concept of individual liberty’. She died in 1986.

--This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07C631LDC
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fourth Estate (Aug. 30 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1285 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 828 pages

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Customer Reviews:
133 ratings

About the author

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Simone de Beauvoir

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Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (/boʊvˈwɑːr/; French: [simɔn də bovwaʁ]; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist and social theorist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, she had a significant influence on both feminist existentialism and feminist theory.

De Beauvoir wrote novels, essays, biographies, autobiography and monographs on philosophy, politics and social issues. She is known for her 1949 treatise The Second Sex, a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism; and for her novels, including She Came to Stay and The Mandarins. She is also known for her open relationship with French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by unknown. uploader Claudio Elias [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5

133 global ratings

5 star		78%
4 star		17%
3 star		3%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from Canada

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E. Haensel

Excellent book, terrible introduction by Doris Lessing.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 3, 2007

This is a wonderful and captivating, if not necessarily easy to read, book. A few of the previous reviews have commented on it being melodramatic, or overly long, or unfocused. To these claims I would say that rather, it is brutally honest and incredibly realistic. I believe that as a reading public most of us have become used to polished archetypal portraits of protagonists, flawed or not, that smooth over their curves and leave them easy to define, easy to understand and easy to digest. Then these characters undergo changes 'development or degeneration' of their obviously marked out traits and we are swept along.

Simone brings the cluttered mental reality of real life into this sharp but extremely realistic portrait of the mentality of post-war France. Clearly, it is a particular slice of this culture that she presents, but the Prix Goncourt that she was awarded attests to its authenticity.

Importantly, while I loved this book, this particular edition is plagued by an unfortunate situation that many of Simone's books are: terrible publishing. I am unable to comment on the translation (although from reading other books of hers I would guess that it is not very good!) but the introductory essay by Doris Lessing is awful. She seems to have absolutely no understanding of the era the work was written in, no understanding of Simone de Beauvoir, and no understanding of existentialism. Furthermore she deprecates the important ideas of the book and gives the impression that it can be appreciated as historical feminist/leftist kitsch, instead of taking it for the timeless serious philosophical novel that it is. Her introduction seems more like a commentary on her own self-reminisces as an idealistic young adult than anything that relates to the novel itself. Furthermore, the end section called P.S. by the publisher is almost equally useless.

If you can find this book by another publisher, and better yet, another translator you would be better off. A serious introduction which situates the book in its historical context, in Simone's project of writing philosophy through literature, and the context of her existentialist thought and ethics would allow a reader not versed in these ideas to appreciate the depth of her genius through this book.

One person found this helpful

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OmnivorousReader

Memorable record of postwar Paris

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 7, 2001

There are plenty of great books and films about the squalor of life during wartime, and even more about shellshocked soldiers coming to grips with life during peacetime. But surprisingly few novels deal with civilians faced with the task of rebuilding the devastated world around them. The Mandarins would have to be at the top of that very short list. Most critics, here and elsewhere, have tended to focus on the book as Beauvoir's record of her affair with Nelson Algren, but like all great artists, Beauvoir transforms the raw material of her life into something far more profound and encompassing, especially as it is played out against the grand, ruined backdrop of postwar Paris. The resulting book succeeds on so many levels: as roman a clef (Camus, Sartre, Koestler, and obviously Algren all feature prominently), as novel of ideas (of the "where do we go from here?" variety), as a love story (really two love stories--we can't forget Henri/Camus, whose story takes up half the book!), as a Jamesian exploration of brash New World vs. exhausted Old World culture, and finally as a portrait of an intelligent, civilized woman wrestling with her darkest impulses in the wake of Europe's darkest moment.
Is the book overly long? Probably. Melodramatic? At times. Too cluttered with phrases of the "smiled knowingly" variety? Without a doubt. But it's redeemed time and again by the keen intelligence Beauvoir brings to bear on her characters and herself. For days after I put the book down, I found myself literally pining for the company of Anne, Lewis and Henri. Is there any greater testament to a novel than that?

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AckAck

Finding the Conflicts and Humanity in Existentialism

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 16, 2000

The reason that I love Simone so much is defined in this book. What happens when you live with atrocities? What happens when you have to see lives terribly torn apart by evil? What can a person do?
DeBeauvior takes these questions and makes them human, and gives hope to our world. But, with any great existentialist thinker, makes the point that living is hard. To exist well we must make choices and be able to live with them. All of the characters in this book show the angst and chaos of war. How they are able to live with each other and themselves is displayed with amazing depth and insight. The complexities of women are shown vividly - especially if you have read The Second Sex. Each of the woman characters are shown struggling with their societial place as Other, yet, show this trancendence that is even more important to her gender.
This is also an incredible demonstration of the power and pain of love. I read this book as a teenager and found that I reread it at least once a year to remind me of the beauty and pain of life. It is a wonderful book about being a woman, and a thinker. I recommend it to anyone who is disturbed about events in this world and how to deal with them.

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Simon

Just beautiful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 19, 2022

Verified Purchase

I loved this , the time the place , the passion of the characters for life , love and political ideals

Beautifully written and highly recommended..

One person found this helpful

A Reader

Excellent portrayal of post-war France

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 16, 2019

Verified Purchase

Still fascinating and important 70 years on. Aside from being a great novel in its own right, it’s an excellent snapshot of the French intellectual scene in the immediate post-war years.

Ellie

Engaging for the most part

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 7, 2015

Verified Purchase

I really enjoy Simone de Beauvoir's writing and for the most part, this novel was engaging. However, the novel is written with two interwoven narratives and I found Anne's (SdB's fictional counterpart, of sorts) chapters a bit dreary and self-indulgent at times. She writes about her (extra-marital, but sanctioned) lover in a cloying manner and I felt it was a bit too cringey for me. The third person chapters were fine though. Also, it's a fairly chunky book.

5 people found this helpful

Cliente de Amazon

Great novel, poor printing quality

Reviewed in Mexico 🇲🇽 on May 22, 2020

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The novel is great, but the quality of the book printing is poor. Letters are kind of blurry and make the reading some way difficult. Also the book is not cheap, but the quality it is

One person found this helpful

luisa navidad

Me gust

Reviewed in Mexico 🇲🇽 on August 8, 2020

Verified Purchase

Me llego a tiempo, y en buen estado, es un libro robusto e interesante, hasta ahora he leido el
Principio y la autora realmente hace que vivas en carne propia el lugar donde lo narra, con henri y paula, seguire leyendo.

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The Mandarins (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) Kindle Edition

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