Simone Weil: A Modern Pilgrimage (SkyLight Lives) [Paperback]

Robert Coles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2001 | Series: SkyLight Lives

The French writer and philosopher Simone Weil (1906-1943) devoted her life to a search for God--while avoiding membership in organized religion. She had a startling intellect, the social conscience of a grass-roots labor organizer, and the certainty and humility of a mystic. And she persistently carried out her spiritual search in the company of the poor and oppressed.

Robert Coles's intriguing study of Weil--who has been called both saint and madwoman--details her short, eventful life, showing why she had a profound spiritual influence on so many others, among them T. S. Eliot, Flannery O'Connor, Adrienne Rich, and Albert Camus. This most accessible introduction, now updated with a new foreword by the author, shows us why this extraordinary life continues to inspire seekers everywhere.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Coles, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard psychiatry professor, here examines Weil's radical sociopolitical views, astringent moral philosophy and mystical Christianity. "A new study of this brilliant, perplexing and 'unnerving' French thinker and moral heroine, who died in 1943 at age 34, is certainly called for, and this perceptive one does her justice," maintained PW.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Coles takes up certain themes and passions that preoccupied his subjects, and wrestles with them as one might do with those of any figure who has become a lifelong spiritual companion.... To Dr. Coles, irony and paradox are the very conditions of life, and in Weil he finds much to try to explain. Straight off he confronts her probable suicide and links it with her lifelong aspiration to the condition of hunger, not only as a way of sharing the deprivations of those who suffer, but as a spiritual condition of those who, as she puts it, are `waiting for God.'" -- New York Times Book Review

"The legendary Weil--part saint, part literary genius, part patriot, part mystic--was an intellectual who believed that one must put one's body on the line. In her case, her body was frail, but her will was indomitable. Coles's conversations with Anna Freud about [Simone Weil] are luminous points in a book already filled with passion and light." -- Kirkus Reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Skylight Paths Publishing (March 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893361349
• ISBN-13: 978-1893361348
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,153,205 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( W ) > Weil, Simone

More About the Author

Robert Coles is professor emeritus at Harvard University and the author of numerous books, including his series Children of Crisis, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. He has also won a MacArthur Award, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a National Humanities Medal. He lives in Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Explains Weil's Roots, May 14, 2003

By 

Mike Jacobs (Southeast Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Simone Weil: A Modern Pilgrimage (SkyLight Lives) (Paperback)

This is an essential Weil book for the beginner. It's always useful to understand a philosopher's roots, and this book does not disappoint. Afterward I had much more appreciation for Weil's brilliance as well as her mental dysfunction. I came away with the sense that she was an unfinished work; that her philosophy up until her death was not yet mature. What insights she might have more completely developed had she lived! Re-reading her words now, I have a good sense of perspective on what influenced her thoughts and decisions.