The Mandarins [Paperback]

Simone de Beauvoir (Author)

Book Description

Series: Norton Paperback Fiction | Publication Date: July 1, 1999

"Salty, frank, and realistic." — San Francisco Chronicle

In her most famous novel, The Mandarins, Simone de Beauvoir takes an unflinching look at Parisian intellectual society at the end of World War II. In fictionally relating the stories of those around her — Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Arthur Koestler, Nelson Algren — de Beauvoir dissects the emotional and philosophical currents of her time. At once an engrossing drama and an intriguing political tale, The Mandarins is the emotional odyssey of a woman torn between her inner desires and her public life. "Much more than a roman à clef . . . a moving and engrossing novel." — New York Times

Editorial Reviews

Review

Much more than a roman clef . . . a moving and engrossing novel. -- New York Times

Salty, frank, and realistic. -- San Francisco Chronicle

About the Author

Simone de Beauvoir is the author of The Second Sex and the winner of the Prix Goncourt, France's highest honor, for The Mandarins.

Product Details

• Paperback: 612 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393318834
• ISBN-13: 978-0393318838
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #415,393 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Memorable record of postwar Paris, August 7, 2001

By 

OmnivorousReader (Chelsea, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mandarins (Paperback)

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?

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A life-affirming work of genius., August 28, 2004

By 

G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mandarins (Paperback)

This novel is the work of a brilliant mind wrestling with big thoughts during Europe's darkest hour, and it is easy to understand why it won France's highest honor, the Prix Goncourt. Set amidst the ruins of post-World War II Paris, THE MANDARINS (1954) provides a fictional portrait of Simone de Beauvoir's existential, intellectual circle of friends, which included her lifelong partner, Jean-Paul Sarte, Albert Camus, Aurthur Koestler, and her lover, Nelson Algren. (In her fiction, de Beauvoir drew heavily from her own life and the people in it. As a result, many readers of THE MANDARINS have drawn comparisons between her character Anne to de Beauvoir, Henri to Camus, Anne's husband to Sartre, and Anne's daughter to de Beauvoir's lover, and just as many readers have approached her novel primarily as an thinly fictionalized account of de Beauvoir's passionate affair with Algren.) Certainly, THE MANDARINS may be read as a love story examining the complex dilemmas posed by love and marriage (i.e., existential relationships are easier in theory than in reality). However it also succeeds on a more profound level.

In the confusing aftermath of a world war, when oppression and fascism threatened personal freedom, de Beauvoir insightfully struggles with the question, "where do we go from here?" in THE MANDARINS. Her fascinating circle of intellectual characters demonstrate that life is difficult and confusing, and to live a meaningful life, we must accept the responsibilities that come with freedom. In the end, one must decide to either founder in apathy--things "are never as important as they seem; they change, they end, and above all, when all is said and done, everyone dies. That settles everything" (p. 359)--or one may listen instead to the life-affirming beat of the heart--as the heart continues to beat, and it beats "for something, for someone" (p. 610).


THE MANDARINS is truly a masterpiece and a life-affirming work of genius. And when oppressive governments continue to threaten our personal liberties, the philosophical questions that haunted de Beauvoir when her novel was published fifty years ago remain just as relevant today.

G. Merritt

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finding the Conflicts and Humanity in Existentialism, December 15, 2000

By 

Amy Knoll-McCormick (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mandarins (Paperback)

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.