I learned that Simone de Beauvoir was one smart cookie. I learned about existentialism for the first time and absuridty and the French resistance and Paris bars. I took this book to Paris and read it there. I went to the bars and cafes and read it there. I was on a late and horrible honeymoon and still have the book but the husband.....non184 s Ahmad Sharabiani9,564 6,871

Les Mandarins = The Mandarins, Simone de Beauvoir

The Mandarins is a 1954 roman written by Simone de Beauvoir, for which she won the Prix Goncourt, awarded to the best and most imaginative prose work of the year, in 1954. The Mandarins was first published in English in 1956.

The book follows the personal lives of a close-knit group of French intellectuals from the end of World War II to the mid-1950's.

The title refers to the scholar-bureaucrats of imperial China.

The characters at times see themselves as ineffectual "mandarins" as they attempt to discern what role, if any, intellectuals will have in influencing the political landscape of the world after World War II.

As in de Beauvoir's other works, themes of feminism, existentialism, and personal morality are explored as the characters navigate not only the intellectual and political landscape but also their shifting relationships with each other.

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??????????? ?? «????? ?? ?????» ?? ??? 1954?????? ??????? ???? ??? ???? ??? ?? ?????????? ???????? «????? ?? ?????» ???? ?? ?? ??????? ????? ? «?????» ??? ?? ?? ????? ???? ?????? ??? ???? ?? ????? «???????»? «?????????»? ? ?? «??????» ???? ????? «??????????»? ????? ???? ?? ??? ?? ???? «??????» ????? ?? ???? ??? ??????? ???? - ??? ??? ???? ??? ?? ????? ????? ????? «?? ?????» ???? ?????? ????? ??? ??????? ??? ????? ???? ? ??? ? ?????? ???? ??? ???? ?? ????????? ??????? «???????»? ?? ?? ??? ????? ??? ????? ??????? ??????? ???? ??? ???? ?? ???? ????? ????? ? ???? ????????? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ?????? ?? ??? ???? «????? ??????» ???? ???? ?? ?????? ? ????? ?? ????????? «???????» ??? ?? ???? ??? ????? ?? ???? ???? ????? ???? ?? ?? ??? ????? ???? ? ???? ??? ???? ? ??? «???????»? ?? ???? ??? ???? ?? ????? ???????? ? ???????? ??????? ??? ????? ???? ??? ????? ???????? ???? ?? ??? ????? ?? ???? ? ????? ???? ? «????? ?? ?????» ? «????? ?????» ???? ??? ???? ?? ????? ??????? ? «??????» (?????? ???? ?? ?? ??? ???? ??????) ???? ?????

????? ?????? ????? 06/03/1400???? ???????? ?. ??????? MannyAuthor 33 books14.8k

A lot of people appear to dis Les Mandarins, which I think is a pretty excellent novel, so let me try and explain what I think is good about it. To me, it's basically about what happens to people (particularly to women) when they realize that they are no longer young. This has several consequences. To start off with, not being young means that you're no longer as physically attractive as you were. Of course, you can go into denial, and say that as long as you eat healthily, exercise, and think positive thoughts, you're going to stay young and tasty for ever. But let's be realistic.

The rest of this review is available elsewhere (the location cannot be given for Goodreads policy reasons)french history-and-biography if-research-were-romance ...more72 s Jan-Maat1,589 2,157 Read

There is more than one way to peel the Mandarins, this is my second attempt.

The Mandarins were a scholarly elite in Imperial China, word of them was brought, if I remember correctly, by the Jesuits to France during the reign of Louis XIV (or maybe the XVth, then abouts anyhow) and it was a notion that seemed to have taken possession of the minds of the French Philosophes by the Enlightenment - one can see the attraction to literary men (and the occasional literary women) of wise, or at least witty, literary types dominating not simply public discourse but deciding public policy and shaping the future of the country. France is in this novel contrasted with the USA, so while on a visit to the USA Anne says to her hosts at one point: "I had once been told that here intellectuals could live in security because they knew they were completely powerless" (p.394) which I felt crystallised the mentalite - the belief that to be a public intellectual in France was a position of power, but a dangerous one while for her in the USA an intellectual could say anything safely because nobody would pay attention - in the novel things don't turn out to be so simple and innocent but that is perilously close to being a spoiler "Admitting that you belong to a fifth rate nation and to an outmoded era isn't something you can do overnight." (p.622) is what Robert (the Sartre character) says to Henri (the Camus character) close to the end.

Simone de Beauvoir's 1954 prize winning novel follows the lives of several would be Mandarins (based on de Beauvoir and her cronies) as they hope to guide France into the future avoiding the Scylla and Charybdis of the USA and the USSR, can they find a third way of integrity, honour and decency, or are they fated to understand not only their own powerlessness but contingency and lack of free will, have they been fatally compromised by their wartime experiences?

I expected it to be an effete, arty-farty novel perhaps served up with some poncey pontificating, but instead I found it a substantial stew, rich and slow cooked. Perhaps de Beauvoir won me over through that substance, a book of 736 pages (in this edition) is either going to show it's faults and fall apart or slowly overwhelm all resistance - steamrollering the reader a hapless villain in a cartoon. Certainly it was not what I was expecting after reading The Woman Destroyed and Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter.

The last chapter alone is a sustained stream of consciousness, otherwise the novel proceeds mostly through conversations from the winter of 1944 through to 1950 or perhaps a year or two later, chapter by chapter alternating between either taking Henri (Albert Camus), here appearing as a newspaper editor and literary man, or Anne Dubreuilh (Simone de Beauvoir) - a successful Freudian psychoanalyst encouraging her patients as advised in Civilisation and its Discontents to adapt themselves to their conditions (which is naturally the problem that all the characters and French post-war society as a whole face, as point of view characters. The novel draws strongly on their actual lives about which I knew nothing and so cleverly avoided spoilers through ignorance.

This is a drab Parisian world, vigilantes still pursue collaborators, collaborators seek to rehabilitate themselves, the effects of the war and occupation weigh on the characters negatively and positively (in the sense of their faith in their ability to shape a better world).

I am now curious about de Beauvoir's 1949 book The Second Sex as all the women in this novel are seen and see themselves in relation to men (generally this works out badly for them) the most extreme case is the daughter of a woman who is being blackmailed on account of the facilities that she provided to German army officers during the war, the daughter happened to fall in love with a German Captain and during the mother's narration the sub-text seemed to me to be 'stupid girl! If only he had been at least a Major'. Anne has an affair with an American writer (this based on de Beauvoir's affair with Nelson Algren) I noticed eventually that she waits for a word from him, she is permanently in reaction to what he says - what she feels and wants is always suppressed, I can't help feeling that while the affair represents a much needed letting down of the hair after the war it is also a brutal representation of the realities of an Atlanticist political position - can the land of Liberté, égalité, fraternité come together with the land of the all-mighty dollar and will it be a match made in Heaven or doomed to failure or is the answer de Gaulle? ? Late in the book Anne attends a literary party and observes the other women - in her eyes they are all hags and ogresses, their ancient flesh oozing out round strained corsets these women it turns out are all in their 40s, no doubt living through the first half of the 20th century took a physical toil, but I do wonder about the savagery of her opinion. Arthur Koestler turns up as a fantastically sinister and predatory character - the Anti-Soviet activist Scriassine - and allegations of his bad behaviour towards women, on the basis of this novel are confirmed.

If I was to give it a star rating I would say Four star, not 3 1/2, not 4.267843, but Four precise and shining stars (maybe more for the harden Camus, Sartre or de Beauvoir fans, less if you Koestler).20th-century fiction novel ...more66 s Aubrey1,409 952

It’s a horrible thing, a woman who labors to lead a man’s hands to her body by appealing to his mind. The irony of the author of The Second Sex having published this five years after the previous kills me, it really does. What's worse is her having won the Prix Goncourt for it, a weighty stamp of approved literature prowess that says nothing less than, yes, this is how you discuss philosophical theories in the midst of love and warfare: trot the men out trigger happy and reduce the women to self-hating despair. I can imagine a younger self of mine picking this up before TSS; imagining what would have inevitably resulted makes me sick.

Beauvoir did not publicly declare herself a feminist till 1972. I don't envy the life that made her forbear from such a declaration until TSS was nearly a quarter of a century old. I don't envy what ignorant bliss the characters in this book must have been in until WWII rolled around and the world transformed into a geography of atomic bombs and concentration camps. I don't envy the balancing act they all had to maintain, bandying political agendas and philosophical jargon and standing up for the oppressed via paper, all the while dehumanizing every female within reach and then some. Women and men a, self-contempt for one and indulgent solipsism for the other, a mutilation that cannot help but be inextricably mixed with any and all of their good intentions. If Beauvoir's portraits of her fellow thinkers are as keen as some say they are, their crises of existentialism and absurdism don't surprise me. It's hard to live with yourself when your definition of freedom is sadism. “If others don’t count, it’s meaningless to write. But if they do count, it’s wonderful to gain their friendship and their confidence; it’s magnificent to hear your own thoughts echoed in them.”

"All that writing about the melancholy of the Portuguese and how mysterious it is. Actually it's ridiculously simple: of seven million Portuguese, there are only seventy thousand who have enough to eat."

When I was a child, a teacher seemed to me a much greater person than a duchess or a millionaire, and through the years that hierarchy had not changed appreciably. However. Those up there are only a few of many of the wonderful things Beauvoir pens in regards to education, literature, the intersection of humanity with the written word. A few years ago, for the sake of these pearls, I might have excused her atrocious double standards when it came to characterizing both shell and core of the gendered dichotomy. I even gave her the benefit of the doubt until the last page was turned, hoping this all too rigorous misogyny would be flipped over, left wriggling and wailing on its thickened carapace with its soft and sickening underbelly all too clearly exposed. There are instances, perfectly gorgeous instances where the author could have stepped forward and outfitted phrases these: To maintain that I alone hold our affair in my hands is to substitute a puppet for Lewis, to transform myself into a ghost and our past into anemic memories. Our love isn’t a story I can pull out of the context of my life in order to tell it to myself. It exists outside myself; Lewis and I bear it together. Closing one’s eyes isn’t enough to do away with the sun; disavowing that love is only blinding myself. No, I rejected cautious thinking, and false solitude, and sordid consolations.

“You throw men into a war and then, at the first rape, you hang them!” with the sharp and incisive insight I knew in TSS that they so rightfully deserve. Instead, the malaise extends to all reaches of the third person man and the first person woman, generating a plot with girlfriends in a refrigerator, male characters with not a physical description or unsubstantiated denigration in sight, and the good old colonialist mindset. Practice reducing those around you to ciphers long enough, and something's gotta give. "I don't want to think about myself any more," she said violently. "I've had enough of thinking about myself. Don't give me bad advice." You can't think yourself out of feeling alienated. You can think yourself into it right quick if you insist on dressing it up in the word "freedom", treating your interpersonal relationships trash, and pretending your work and your money will see fit to care when you're lost and alone and thinking of ending it all. You'll be free when you're dead, not only dead but forgotten, not only forgotten but negligible in the impact you made on the reality of others through your ideologies, your habitus, how you lived and what you learned and the whys and wherefores of the things you said. You'll be free when what you did in the name of what you held dear is so warped by the ones who come after you that no one will believe the origin of it all was you, and you alone. "The freedom of a writer—it would be interesting to know what that means," Beauvoir wasn't free, and so I don't blame her. I don't blame any woman who views thought as equivalent to self-immolation and conducted/conducts/will conduct herself as such. What I will do is remember my introduction to feminism, when it first became clear that it was not and had never been just me. What I will do is not sacrifice my political ideals just because I can't sway millions in a day. What I will do is better myself with the ideas and live for the humans, for at the end of the day and the triumphs and the horrors and the same old same old, it is awfully nice to sit down and reaffirm one's existence with someone who cares.3-star antidote-think-twice-all antidote-think-twice-read ...more42 s Steven Godin2,550 2,677

I believe this to be her best work. It's long, probably too long, but that's a small niggle compared to all that's so good about it. 'The Mandarins' gives us a brilliant survey of the post-war French intellectual. It's accuracy and its objectivity combine to present a dazzling panorama of the men and women caught up in ever-changing times. As a fan of the existentialist movement this was no-brainer for me to read, it's an expression of her unique style, represented with such vibrancy, that differs from the s of Sartre. There are a whole host of extremely memorable wise and life-enchanting characters, that were easily able, and a crisp and clean translation (before my French was any good) was an added benefit. This was compulsive reading of the highest order. A grand work, from one of the 20th century's great female writers. classic-literature feminism fiction ...more48 s AiK650 207

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? ????????? ??????????, ??? ????????? ??????? ????????????, ?? ?????? ??????, ???????????????. ????????? ???????, ?????-?? ????? ????? ?????????????????? ????????, ?? ?????? ????????? ????????????? ?????? ? ???????, ? ???? ? ????, ? ??????????????, ???? ? ????? ???????. ? ?????? ??? ??????????? – ???? ? ????, ??????????????, ??? ??????? ?? ????????.
????? ?????????? ??????????? ? ???? ??????? ????. ??, ?? ????????????? ????????, ????????? ?????????, ???????? ??????, ?????????????, ?? ???????? ?????????????, ? ??? ????? ????? ??????? ?????. ?? ? ???????????? ?????????, ???? – ??????????? ??????, ????????? ? ???????? ???????. ??? ???? ??????? ???? ????, ??????? ?? ?????? ???? ???????????? ??????????, ?? ????? ????????? ??????? ? ????????? ?????????. ???? ???? ??????????????, ??? ?????? ? ??? ???? ????, ???????????? ???, ??, ????? ???????, ??? ??? ??????, ?????? ??? ??????, ??? ??????? ?????????? ???????????, ? ????? ??????? ????????????, ?????????? ????????? ????? ??? ?????. ????? ??? ?????? ??????, ??????? ??????? ???? ?????, ??? ?? ?????? ??????? ???????? ??? ????????? ???????, ??? ?? ??? ????? ??????, ????? ????? ???????? ?? ???? ???? ??-?? ????????? ? ?????????????????. ????????? ???? ???, ?? ??? ???????. ?? ?????? ????? ????? ??????, ??? ??? ?????? ???? ???? ?????? ?????????, ??? ?????????, ??????????????? ???????? ???????? ? ??????, ?????? ?????????????, ??? ????? ??????? ???????, ? ? ????????? ???? ??? ? ????. ???? ???? ???????, ???? ??? ????? ?????????. ?? ?? ? ??? ?? ???????, ? ????? ?? ??????? ?? ?????, ?????? ???? ? ??????. ??, ??????????, ???? ??????????? ??????? ?????? ???? ????, ???? ?????? ?????, ???? ???????, ???? ???? ????????????, ????????? ?? ????????????? ??? ? ????? ?????????????. ????? ??? ??????? ?? ??????.
???????? ?????????? ????? ???? – ????? ????? ???????? ???????, ???? ??? ??????????????? (?????????? ??? ?????? ??????). ????????, ???? ????? ? ?????? ????????? ? ???. ? ?????? ???? ???? ???????? ???????, ?? ? ?????? ????? ????????? ????????????, ? ?????????, ????? ???????? ? ????? ?????????? ???????? ?? ????. ?? ???? ?? ????? ??????, ??? ?? ?? ?????. ??? ????????, ??? ??? ?? ?????? ???????? ???????, ? ????? ????????, ??? ???? ?? ????? ??????????. ??? ??? ?????? ???? ????? ????? ???. ??? ?????? ????? ????? ????????????? ???? ?????, ????? ? ?????? ??????? ??? ????????, ?????? ?????? ???????????.34 s s.penkevich1,125 8,829 Currently reading

Have a long layover on the way to DC next week, might as well start a long book as my Beauvoir obsession rages onward!31 s Tim1 review3

I might be alone in really loving this book. I'm not sure if I understand what is not to love. This book is a bright light in a period of self-important post-war literature-- our 1984s and Wastelands-- in that it carefully avoids the moral preachiness and overabundant heavy-handed symbolism by which the supposed major works of this period are so weighed down.

The Mandarins is a treatise on life in suspended animation: when the war ends how does life continue? One way to look at it is the book is a post-war tell all, sort of a woody allen movie set in post-war paris. Everyone is plaintive, distant, adulterous, self-important and mired in the same incestuous/elitist artistic-literary-politcal social life. Everyone is sort of pathetic, still reeling from the self-righteous throes of the resistance, at once resting on their laurels from the war, but also injured and disrupted by it. Simone de Beavoir is an astute observer of the human condition and she sometimes caricatures these shitty aesthetes and sometimes she glorifies them but at the end of the day her portrayal is fairly compelling.

The book raises some pretty significant questions about how to proceed in the task of finding meaning in a world which has fallen into such destructive violence and depravity. How do we raise a family? How do we fall in love? How do we engage politically? This book really has a lot to offer but its really long and sometimes sort of boring. But aren't most of the great novels (i.e. man without qualities, remembrance of things past)?

I think this book qualifies as a real diamond in the rough. Compared to all the heavy hitters from its time, it might seem sort of a light-weight. And if you judge it by its cover its basically just a liberalized frenchy An Raynd. But if you dig a little deeper this is a book that examines the origins of 20th Century liberalism and the collapse of post-war morality without a hint of the prejudice and preachiness of its contemporaries. The book accomplishes this through the traditional novelistic tools: characters, scenes, dialogue, description. I can't guarentee you will love this book. It might be too tame for you. I have to admit, its pretty vanilla. But the issues are dealt with thoughtfully and the characters are memorable. Just any great novel.

A kick-ass book that is brutally under-rated.29 s Kansas651 342

"- Nuestros generales no economizan en material humano...
- Cuestión de prestigio -dijo-. Si todavía queremos jugar a la gran potencia, necesitamos un número correcto de muertos."

Nunca me habia parado a pensar lo que debe ser reconstruir los ideales de un pais devastado después de una ocupación traumática, de una guerra… , un país que había sido zarandeado, ocupado, humillado y finalmente quedó completamente asolado no solo físicamente sino en la cuestión de sus ideales. En esta novela, Simone de Beauvoir se ocupa precisamente de eso, de narrarnos el difícil proceso en el que se vió se sumergida Francia durante la posguerra: había que recoger los pedazos y centrarse en encontrar un camino para no volver al totalitarismo y a otra guerra.

Esta novela cubre la etapa entre 1944, con el fin de la ocupación alemana hasta mediados de los años 50, cuando medio planeta andaba ya sumergido en la Guerra Fría, y usa como excusa para ello la vida de varios personajes pertenecientes a la izquierda intelectual francesa que durante la guerra habían luchado en la resistencia, escritores, periodistas, filósofos…, Los que habían sobrevivido a los campos de concentración o a ser aniquilados, se unen de alguna manera para darle una consistencia intelectual a un país en ruínas. Simone de Beauvoir usa para ello dos personajes guía para contarnos los acontecimientos: por una parte Henri Perron, escritor, periodista, uno de los personajes claves de la Resistencia, y una de las figuras emblemáticas a la hora de este nuevo resurgimiento, ya que al ser el fundador de un periódico de izquierdas L’Espoir, tendrá una enorme influencia sobre el resto. El otro personaje guía es el de Ana Dubreuilh, una psiquiatra muy prestigiosa, que además es la esposa de otra de las figuras emblemáticas de la intelectualidad: Robert Dubreuilh, uno de estos escritores que ahora llamaríamos influencers por la forma en que sus ideas influirían en el pueblo.

Desde el primer momento es una novela que me enganchó porque Simone de Beauvoir demuestra un gran talento a la hora de que el lector se adentre en la historia de sus personajes, y psicologícamente hablando los delinea muy bien, te hace conectar con ellos y nos resultan perfectamente comprensibles. Aunque es una novela donde hay muchos párrafos con reflexiones politicas, filosóficas, y dilemas morales donde sus personajes debaten temas que quizás ahora le resulte lejano al lector, el estilo de Simone de Beauvoir es cercano, perfectamente transparente. Me fascina el tema de unos personajes que durante la guerra han estado perfectamente vivos, activos, resistiendo, y algunos pensaríamos que lo más difíficil y doloroso ya estaría pasado que es la etapa de la guerra, y sin embargo, la autora explica perfectamente como lo más complejo está todavía por llegar porque todos estos personajes que han estado unidos durante la ocupación alemana, resistiendo y jugándose el pellejo tras la fachada alemana, cuando ya por fin son libres, viene esa otra etapa en la que tienen que permanecer unidos para construir un país, y aquí comienza lo complicado. La intelectualidad de izquierdas comienza a dividirse, y ahora todos quieren una parte del pastel. Anne Dubreuilh como esposa de uno de los personajes clave es una observadora siempre atenta a estos cambios, y va siendo testigo de este desencanto que progresivamente los va ensombreciendo y Henri Perron, un eterno idealista, pronto comprende que el idealismo sirve para poco cuando la realidad, la corrupción y los intereses políticos están a la orden del dia.

"Un aliado no es necesariamente un amigo. Además ¿qué es un amigo? (...) Amigos: ¿hasta qué punto? Si no cedo, ¿qué será de esta amistad?"

Al mismo tiempo que los mandarines fueron ese sector de la élite del imperio chino con poder e influencia, especialmente en los círculos literarios e intelectuales, aquí Simone de Beauvoir está estableciendo esta comparación con este grupo de personas de su entorno. Es bien sabido que esta novela es una especie de narración ficticia (un roman a clef) del propio entorno de Simone de Beauvoir durante la posguerra y aunque ella de alguna forma lo ha negado, el personaje de Ana podría ser ella misma, Robert Dubreuilh es Jean Paul Sartre y Henri Perron podría ser el mismo Albert Camus. La novela está dedicada a Nelson Algren, uno de los hombres más importantes en la vida de Simone de Beauvoir, y una importante sección de la novela está dedicada precisamente a narrarnos la historia de Ana con Lewis Brogan, escritor de izquierdas americano, fiel reflejo de la que fue su historia de amor con Algren.

Es una novela que he disfrutado muchísimo porque ya digo que me ha hecho entender una época de la historia que no se suele debatir demasiado, casi siempre es el periodo concreto de la guerra la que se lleva todo el protagonismo, y sobre todo la he disfrutado porque he entendido a sus personajes: desde el colaboracionista que se vió obligado a colaborar para sobrevivir, hasta esos personajes desesperados por conservar el alma de lo que fue la resistencia, y ya en la posguerra usando unos métodos que ya no eran lícitos. Es una novela de casi 800 páginas pero creo que estas páginas son necesarias para ir entendiendo todo el proceso de hasta qué punto todo ha cambiado y ya no son los mismos, y porque es la única forma de que el lector pueda entender al mismo tiempo que sus personajes, que no se puede continuar donde se quedaron antes de la guerra. Todos han cambiado y aquí hay ahora una enorme gama de matices que no tiene nada que ver con lo que fue en el pasado; ahora hay una delgada linea que separa al colaboracionista del héroe y ambos acaban camuflándose, por poner un ejemplo. Simone de Beauvoir se encarga de ponernos en situación y por supuesto de no idealizar nada. Las relaciones entre ellos, las rencillas, las historias de amor, los desencuentros… todo está aquí perfectamente narrado y poco a poco la autora va haciendo al lector complice de su historia. Una novela que me ha parecido magnífica y cuyo final le da el auténtico significado al conjunto total.

Lo que sí tengo que decir es que la traducción de Silvina Bullrich me ha parecido un horror, un atentado en toda regla; porque no hay otra edición y porque no domino el francés, si no, otro gallo hubiera cantado pero el caso es que una vez empezada, el contexto histórico y el acercamiento de Simone de Beauvoir a sus personajes, me engancharon. Un sacrilegio que a estas alturas ninguna editorial haya editado y traducido decentemente esta magnífica novela al castellano.

"Heme aquí claramente catalogada, y aceptando que así sea, adaptada a mi marido, a mi oficio, a la vida; a la muerte, al mundo, a sus horrores. Soy yo, apenas yo, es decir, nadie."

https://kansasbooks.blogspot.com/2021...28 s Roman Clodia2,581 3,392

Volume 1:

This is the first volume of de Beauvoir's huge and compelling depiction of the left-wing French intelligentsia in the last years of the second world war. Opening at Christmas 1944, the first Christmas after the liberation, this follows our main characters through the last year of the war and into the aftermath as they struggle to deal with the fall-out of the Occupation, the reckoning of collaboration, and the uneasy negotiations between the socialist left and the communist party.

This doesn't skim over any of the detail and is a rich source of history rendered on the page by de Beauvoir's acute and telling narrative. Her two main male characters are both writers, deeply concerned with the role of the intellectual in society, and this book depicts the politics of the period excellently - from the jubilation of the liberation to the increasing despondency, even despair, as they witness Hiroshima, and the revelation of the gulag system in Russia.

But the book isn't all party politics - it's also profoundly interested in gender politics. From Paule, who refuses to accept that her long-term lover no longer cares for her, to Anne who cannot step outside of her comfort zone, to Anne's daughter, Nadine, who is only 17 but has already lost loved ones to the war - this deals with themes which recur in de Beauvoir's writing: the psychological relationships between women and their bodies, the dynamics of power between men and women, the dreadful malaise which can inhabit love relationships.

This book is sometimes dismissed as a roman à clef but it's far more than that, and de Beauvoir is too good a writer to simply recreate either herself or her friends on the page. Certainly there are elements of Sartre, Camus, de Beauvoir herself in this book but they don't easily map onto fixed characters - and there's a bit of de Beauvoir in all the characters, the men as well as the women.

Written in crisp and clean prose, beautifully direct and uncluttered by extravagant similes and metaphors, reading this book isn't so much reading as taking part in a myriad simultaneous conversations as the characters argue, debate, fall in and out of love, drink champagne in cellar bars, and go dancing till the early hours of the Paris morning.

Volume 2:

This second volume of de Beauvoir's massive novel of Parisian intellectual life in the last years of, and just after, the second world war, picks up immediately from volume one.

On the personal level we have the story of Anne Dubreuilh's transatlantic love affair which draws on de Beauvoir's own affair with Nelson Algren, as well as the dreadful breakdown of lovely, desperate, fatally needy Paule who goes literally mad for love.

On the political level we have acute depictions of the increasingly fraught relationships between the French Leftist factions and the Communist Party; and the continuing reckoning with Nazi collaborators and former Gestapo spies.

At the heart of the book are a series of profound engagements with philosophical questions of how should we live in the face of an uncaring universe and the certainty of death - and characters are allowed to find their own ways of negotiating what it means to live a good life and to find a form of happiness.

This is a deep, rich and completely absorbing read written in de Beauvoir's clean and uncluttered prose. Because it refuses any kind of genre alignment, there's nothing neatly patterned, contrived, or expected about it and characters continue to surprise us right to the end.

I love this book so much that I just want to slip between the covers and live inside it!27 s merixien596 428

Simone de Beauvoir’?n ?kinci Dünya Sava?? ile ba?lay?p; ABD’nin Vietnam müdahalesi, Kore Sava??, Frans?z kolonisinin da??lmas?, Gulag’?n ortaya ç?k??? ve solun Avrupa’daki bölünmesi gibi olaylarla, bir dönemin siyasi ve entellektüel yap?s?na ???k tutan kitab?. Bütün bu olaylar? da entellektüel kesimin almas? gereken konumu, yaz? ile siyaset aras?ndaki ba?? sorgulayarak aktar?yor. Tabii ayn? dönemde ya?ad?klar? iki büyük a?k? ve y?k?m?n?; patolojik ba?lanmay? ve de sava??n bir toplum psikolojisi üzerindeki etkilerini de es geçmiyor. Kitap Simone de Beauvoir’?n hayat?ndan gerçek izler ta??yor hatta Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Arthur Koestler, Hélène de Beauvoir, Nelson Algren, Lionel de Roulet gibi isimler de kitapta yer al?yor. Ancak bu ki?ileri tek tek karakterler halinde vermek yerine ki?iliklerini/olaylar?n? farkl? farkl? karakterlere da??tarak yapm?? sevgili Simone. O yüzden tavsiyem yazarla tan??man?z bu kitapla olmas?n. En az?ndan kendisinin di?er kitaplar?n? okuman?z; Birinci Dünya Sava??’n?n ebeveynleri üzerindeki etkisi ve bunun karde?iyle ili?kisini yap?land?rmas?n?, Zaza’y?, Les Mains Sales’in yaz?m ve sahnelenme sürecini, o dönem Fransas?nda kad?n?n konumunu, Dolores’in yaratt??? sorgulamay?, Olga’y?, Wanda’y?, Combat, Le Figaro, Les Temps Modernes’i ve Victor Kravchenko olay? gibi süreç ve ki?ileri bilerek okumaya ba?lad???n?zda kitap sizin için bamba?ka bir ?eye dönü?ecektir. Simone de Beauvoir’?n en iyi kitab? ve kesinlikle en son okunmas? gerekeni bence.1001-books-to-read-before-you-die favorites female-authors ...more27 s Andrew2,070 777 Read

This was my first time reading Beauvoir's fiction, and I'm rather ashamed I'd waited this long. Having proven herself in The Second Sex and The Ethics of Ambiguity to be one of the smartest, nimblest thinkers of the 20th Century as well as one who made her ideas perfectly clear all of the time, without any of the usual French obfuscation, it's only natural that her fiction should follow suit. And what I loved about The Mandarins was its take-no-prisoners approach. Not a single character was above mockery and derision, and yet another prisoner that was not taken was cynicism itself, as each of those character is also worthy of love, affection, and respect, even at their most fucked up. Similarly, their salon conversations, as silly as they are at times, are often scintillating.french-existentialists french-language-fiction23 s ????196 26

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??????? ????? ???? ?? ?? ?? ?????? ??? ???? . ??? ????? ???? ???? ? ??? ????? ?? ??? ???? ?? ??? ??? ???? ?? ????? ????? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?? ?? ?????. ???? ?? ??? ????? ????? ? ?? ?? ??? ????? ??? ????? ?? ???? . ?? ????? ???? ??? ?? ????? ? ???????? ?? ??????? ?? ??? ???. ???? ??????? ??? ??? ????? ???? ????? ? ???? ?? ??????? ???. ??? ??? ??????? ?? ?? ???? ?? ???? ?? ????? ???? ? ????? ????? ??? ???? ????.... . ????? ???? ?? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ??? ???? ????? ??? ?? ?????? ?? ?????? ?????. 18 s Sonya459 349

?? ???? ?? ???? ?? ??? ?? ???? ???? ?? ?? ????? ????? ????????? ?????? ??? ??? ????? ??? ?? ??????? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ?? ???? ? ?????? ????? ???????? ??? ?? ?? ???? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ??? ????? ?? ???? ????? ??????? ??????? ? ???? ?? ????????? ??? ??? ??????? ??? ??? ????? ??? ?? ????? ?? ?? ??? ???? ??? ????? ?? ????? ?????? ? ?? ?????? ????? ???? ????? ?? ??? ?? ???? ? ??????? ?? ????? ??????? ? ????? ? ??? ?? ?? ??? ???? ???? ?????. ??? ????? ? ??? ?? ??? ?? ?????? ??? ? ????? ??????? ?? ????? ????? ?????? ??? ?????? ? ?????? ??????? ? ?????? ? ??????? ?? ??? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ??? ????????? ??????? ?????. ??? ???? ?? ???? ?? ??? ???????? ???? ?? ??? ????? ?????? ? ??????? ??? ???? ???? ????? ?? ???? ? ????? ??? ????? ????? ??? ????? ??? ??? ???.17 s Laura V. ?????508 33

Una delle letture liceali che più mi appassionarono, all'epoca argomento di temi, interrogazioni ed elucubrazioni varie.
Testimonianza straordinaria di quelle che sono state le mobilitazioni e le diverse prese di posizione da parte della "casta" intellettuale parigina nel secondo dopoguerra, in relazione ai vari avvenimenti sulla scena mondiale. Sullo sfondo di una città che a poco a poco riprende a vivere dopo le vicende belliche, l'engagement trova piena realizzazione.
E quale definizione migliore di engagement, se non quella data dalla stessa autrice che così scriveva: "l'engagement non è altro, in fondo, che la presenza totale dello scrittore alla scrittura". Una lezione ancora valida per tanti intellettuali a distanza di oltre mezzo secolo.13 s Steven Walle354 149

This book was absolutely amazing. It was written by one of the most brilliant minds of the twentieth century. The author was a great philosopher and phemonist of her era. I suggest all read this book and any others you can find by her.
Enjoy and Be Blessed.
Diamond15 s Sana171 76

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