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The Mandarins

4.07 of 5 stars 4.07 · rating details · 1,418 ratings · 99 reviews

In her most famous novel, Simone de Beauvoir does not flinch in her look at Parisian intellectual society at the end of World War II. Drawing on those surrounding her---Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Arthur Koestler---and her passionate love affair with Nelson Algren, Beauvoir dissects the emotional and philosophical currents of her time. At once and engrossing drama and...more

Paperback, 752 pages

Published May 3rd 2005 by Harper Perennial (first published 1954)

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The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

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Feb 17, 2009 Manny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: french, strongly-recommended, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, history-and-biography, older-men-younger-women

A lot of people appear to dislike 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 thi...more A lot of people appear to dislike 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. I'm 50, and at my age it's become significantly less likely that people will want to rip my clothes off because they can't wait to get at my body. In 20 years time, I'll be 70, and 70 year olds simply don't get their clothes ripped off for that reason any more. Well, except perhaps for Isaac Bashevis Singer... I recall the memorable scene in Sandra Bernhard's Confessions of a Pretty Lady, where she meets the 70-something Singer for the first time. "Women were all over him like cheap perfume"... that's a great line. For the rest of us, though, we'd better get used to the idea that, sometime in the not too distant future, we're no longer going to be desirable in the way we once were.

Simone de Beauvoir was a exceptionally clear-thinking person, and two of the main characters in the book are women who are having to confront this problem. Paula, who used to be very beautiful, goes into denial. Her guy, Henri (heavily based on Camus), is just not that into her any more. He wants to be with someone young and gorgeous, and she no longer fits the bill. Paula is unfortunate on several counts: she is still deeply in love with him, and she has always prided herself on not being one of those conventional, clingy types. So when he says he wants to go off on vacation with another, much younger woman, she agrees; the important thing, you see, is that he told her all about it, and he's still sleeping with her too. He is, but de Beauvoir describes, in her precise, analytical way, how it's less and less interesting for him. After a while, he isn't sleeping with her at all. Paula still won't accept it; she's the love of his life, he'll come back, he just needs time to grow. Etc. Stage by stage, we get to see what happens as she slides further and further away from reality. It's one of the most heartbreaking things of its kind that I've come across. Anne, the main character, is clearly modelled on de Beauvoir herself. She doesn't become delusional, but just adjusts rationally to changed circumstances. There's this myth that she spent her whole life pining for Sartre after he dumped her. In fact, she got over him pretty well, and had several fine relationships afterwards. In this book, we see a lot of her romance with the American writer Nelson Algren, whom she falls for in a big way. He's crazy about her too, and wants her to come out and live with him permanently in the US (she's there on an extended visit). But she can't just drop everything, she has to go back to France for a while, and things get complicated. This thread is heartbreaking too, in a different and less obvious way.

A lot of the book is about postwar French left-wing politics, and it's easy to be dismissive; what do these deluded Marxist intellectuals have to do with us? In fact, I find the story pretty universal. Another thing about getting older is that you acquire the dubious benefits of hindsight, and important choices you made earlier in your life often start to look doubtful. In my case, the research direction my colleagues and I picked may have turned out to be incorrect; it's not like no one is citing our papers, but a lot fewer than we'd like, and it's not becoming mainstream. Maybe we called it wrong. In de Beauvoir's case, the thing most of her friends got wrong was the Soviet Union. During the period covered by this book, news was starting to turn up about just how bad the Gulag was, and many people suddenly understood what a huge mistake they'd made. Again, some of them went into denial, and others adjusted. The story of how this plays itself out is pretty interesting. OK, we all know now that Stalin was a monster, and we imagine we wouldn't have fallen into this particular trap; we think they were dumb. Perhaps they were, though for my money Sartre was wicked smart. But even if they were dumb, we've all made our own bad judgement calls, and in 50 years time we may look just as dumb. For example, any predictions on what future know-it-alls will say about laissez faire free market economics?

In conclusion, I found this a great novel about the big issues: love, sex, death, work, politics, writing. I read it in French, and really liked her elegant, understated style; I think I finished both volumes in two or three weeks. It's possible that her English translator did a poor job, and spoiled it a bit. But even if it's not being expressed quite as pleasingly, she's saying interesting and important things, and she tells several great stories on the way. It's definitely worth reading.
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Jan 23, 2009 Squidy rated it 5 of 5 stars

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.....non

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Mar 07, 2007 Kalilah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favoratefiction

The story meanders across the last half of a lifetime and is at times absolutely brilliant. The second chapter in and of itself is a masterpiece. I frequently read this portion on it's owns a random times in the year and it is able to bringing me to tears almost everytime.

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Jun 15, 2007 Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favoritephilosophy, fantasticfemales

The Mandarins, sadly, is the only thing I have read by Simone de Beauvoir. And it is great. A fictional account of her relationship with Sartre and the friendship between Sartre and Camus, The Mandarins is a novel that deeply explores interpersonal relationships and gives the reader insight into what may have been between these three famous French intellectuals. The extent to which what Beauvoir writes is historically accurate, I am not sure. However, I think one of the valuable things about thi...more

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Apr 01, 2008 Bryant rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book reads like a French version of an Ayn Rand novel (and this is not compliment). "The Mandarins" is full of flat characters whose voices are scarcely distinguishable, awkward dialogue, insipidly clunky internal monologue, and a surprising lack of atmosphere (how can de Beauvoir make Paris so boring?). The book has pretensions to being philosophical and rich, but it is unfortunately dated and vapid. If this novel represents French intellectual life immediately following WWII, then its mos...more

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Sep 08, 2011 Paul rated it 2 of 5 stars

I first came across this book in a 3rd year history course on post-war Europe. From a historical and political point of view the book brings out an interesting discussion on the collaboration and resistance in France during WW2 and the ramifications of each. From a philosophical point of view, much of the book seems to be influenced by Simone de Beauvoir's time spent with Jean Paul Sartre. As a student I could appreciate the book from both these academic stand points. I found it provided some in...more

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Apr 09, 2010 Judy rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: readers who like de Beauvoir and novels of ideas.

Shelves: books-from-1956

I read the #9 bestseller of 1956 while vacationing in wintertime Sedona, AZ. Long, wordy, philosophical but with a compelling story, it was just great.
Located in Paris and later in America, the story begins on Christmas Eve, 1944, at a party to celebrate the liberation of France from Germany. The gathering includes the main characters, all leftists, writers, and publishers who were involved to one degree or another in the Resistance against the Germans. They are now dreaming of the possibilities...more

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Nov 29, 2009 Tim rated it 5 of 5 stars

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...more 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 like a post-war tell all, sort of like 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 like 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 like any great novel.

A kick-ass book that is brutally under-rated.(less)

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Apr 15, 2011 Lola425 rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a tough one. The political aspect was dense and a little repetitive. I found it interesting that Anne thought herself so different from Paula and yet they ended up exactly the same way. In the end, I ended up respecting only Nadine, who seemed to be the one with the most legitimate reasons for acting as hardhearted and capricious as she did, as the war intruded upon her still-forming youthful personality.

I always find myself agitated when smart women subjugate their own desires and drea...more

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Nov 26, 2012 Lois rated it 3 of 5 stars

Historically interesting, because of how it sets the terms of French political attitudes towards the United States and the Soviet Union, in the years immediately after World War II. The very serious and historically accurate plot point about whether or not French leftists should acknowledge or cover up that 15 million people were interned in Soviet labour camps is intriguing.
Culturally interesting, in terms of how seriously the intellectual characters who are constantly writing essays, articles...more

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Dec 17, 2009 Cdrueallen rated it 3 of 5 stars

My reactions to Simone's massive novel about life with J.P. Sartre, Albert Camus, and Nelson Algren are violently mixed. It's fascinating to read about an era where prize-winning novelists were resistance fighters and political organizers, and though they're continually bemoaning their powerlessness, I'm amazed by how much what they do and say matters in their vanished world. On the other hand, it's discouraging the way Simone turns Sartre into a plaster saint, and Camus into a heroic godlike cr...more

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May 02, 2011 julia rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book started slowly for me - it wasn't until a couple hundred of pages in that I felt like I couldn't put it down. That being said, I cried at the end of the book. Partially because of the tragic story line and partially because the narrator so poignantly articulated feelings that I myself have felt before. I didn't want the story to end, nor to say goodbye to the characters.

This book tells of a love story - but so much of the emotional resonance for me came from the every day interactions...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Gijs rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: did-not-finish, novels, fiction, biography-and-autobiography, french, 20th-century, 20th-century-1950s

Extreem wijdlopige sleutelroman over een stel Franse intellectuelen (denk: Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir zelf en Albert Camus) die hun politieke positie moeten bepalen na de beëindiging van de Tweede wereldoorlog. De roman lijkt al snel alleen maar interessant om te kunnen raden wat op Sartre of Camus slaat, want van haar proza moet De Beauvoir het niet hebben: ze schrijft extreem uitvoerig en ongelooflijk saai.

De puur hypothetisch politieke problemen van de intellectuelen komen triviaal...more

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May 11, 2011 Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars

An interesting view of a period of French intellectual life immediately following World War 2, but before revolution broke out in Algeria and later rebellion in the streets of France.

In general, I had little sympathy for the main characters in the novel as their major preoccupations of whether or not to write, how to organize a non-Communist Party left, and being in and out of love - when not drinking copious amounts of wine and taking nice trips to the countryside - failed to really resonate w...more

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Nov 29, 2009 Daniel Morrison rated it 4 of 5 stars

The book looks at the lives of left bank french intellectuals immediately after the liberation of Paris in 1944,
famous for including thinly veiled versions of the author, Albert Camus and Jean Paul Satre along with other members of their social circle. The large cast of characters is a little bewildering at first but it's to de Beauvoir's credit that all of them are developed well enough that none of them seem two dimensional or forgotten about. That said I preferred she came to stay generally b...more

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Oct 10, 2010 Caroline rated it 2 of 5 stars

Its a good book if you think of it politically. I read it for my political science seminar and it discusses the importance of decisions, how political and personal decisions are equally important and personal decisions are in fact a type of political decisions. However, nothing really ever happens in this book. Simone de Beauvoir describes this type of novel as a metaphysical or philosophical fiction. The author doesn't tell the reader anything, it forces the reader to think and reflect on what...more

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Sep 24, 2012 Erika rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is an amazing achievement. Ambitious, intelligent, engaging. It's the first of her fiction that I've read, and I was delighted to find that Simone de Beauvoir's characters were so varied and three-dimensional. But they are not just well-drawn fictional characters; they are interesting people, the intellectuals of post-war France. A couple of well-known (fictional) writers who were heavily engaged in the resistance during war years, continue to grapple with rebuilding a free France in t...more

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Aug 19, 2012 MacKenzie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: france, philosophy, political, favorites

The melange of characters is made up of Parisian intellectuals, poets, novelists, journalists, playwrights, philosophers, politicians. One of the protagonists speaks for Beauvoir herself, while another is heavily based on Albert Camus - to whom a large portion of the novel devotes the inner-workings of a political newspaper, L’espoir (The Hope).

The novel opens one year after the Liberation of Paris from under German Nazi occupation. A passage from the first chapter:
"Only events counted: the fli...more

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Jun 09, 2012 Rebecca eley rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: if you like thinking books

Recommended to Rebecca by: me

Shelves: thinking, classic

This has been the book I read in the bath which is why it has taken a while to get through. I have to admit I am really not that up on the lives of Satre of Beauvoir (in spite of a year doing philosophy at University) so it was not until the end where it draws the parallels between the Anne and Robert that I really had a clue who was who. I just found the Mandarins an enjoyable read.

I suppose some may call The Mandarins hard going but I did not find it so. The book follows the lives of Anne, Rob...more

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Jun 17, 2010 Asa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-books, female_author

This is the story of a group of French left-wing intellectuals, starting when Paris is liberated in 1944, and told through two people: Henri, a writer and owner of an independent newspaper, and Anne, a psychoanalyst who is married to a friend of Henri's. I liked the parts of this book that dealt with the shifting friendships and politics of the group, a lot of whom were with the French Resistance, and how hard it is to go from the certainties of war to all the compromises and grey areas of a soc...more

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Apr 16, 2012 Erik rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 t...more 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.(less)

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May 21, 2010 Salomé Jashi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: women-men-erotica

‘Nothing was asked of me; I had to be exactly what I was and a man’s desire transformed me into a miracle of perfection. It was so restful that if the sun had stopped in the middle of the sky, eternity would have slipped by without my noticing it.’

more about the book and its influences on me: http://desperate-ingeorgia.blogspot.c... and another extract. http://desperate-ingeorgia.blogspot.c...

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Apr 28, 2013 Nina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It helped give me a deeper perspective on her philosophy and notions about sexuality that I have been reading in the Second Sex. I think she puts herself into each of the characters in some way. Some of the characteristics, when taken to the extreme, end in disaster but there is always some healing offered. I found the book, overall, to be a little long and the politics are pretty foreign to me but it does bring to life for me the world in which she lived and wrote.

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May 29, 2012 Louise Gibbard rated it 3 of 5 stars

I didn't love it. I thought it could potentially have been an amazing novel. I didn't really like any single character very much. There were lots of little nuggets of plot which could have been fascinating but they never really develop into much (Vincent and the murderous retribution of collaborators, Henri's relationship with the Nazi-loving starlet). The political wranglings were interesting but just went on too long. It didn't really go anywhere and there is no real resolution. Meh.

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Apr 22, 2011 Katie marked it as to-read

Henri Perron (considered to be Albert Camus)
Robert Dubreuilh (considered to be Jean-Paul Sartre)
Anne Dubreuilh (considered to be Beauvoir herself)
Lewis Brogan (considered to be Nelson Algren, to whom the book is dedicated)
Scriassine David Cesarani in his biography Arthur Koestler, The Homeless Mind, suggests that Scriassine's character is drawn on Arthur Koestler.
Feminism and existentialism.

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Feb 28, 2010 Daniel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

De Beauvoir's roman a clef set in post-war paris, involving her circle of artists/intellectuals (sartre, camus, arthur koestler, etc). its jarring to see beauvoir as a worried mother and sartre and camus (all under different names and fictionalized to an unknown extent) et al concerned with such immediate, sometimes mundane things, or going on bike rides or succumbing to ill-advised trysts.

I started this tome by accident when waiting for some new amazon purchases to arrive. The opening passage...more

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Mar 10, 2009 Alma rated it 4 of 5 stars

i both love and find depressing the fact that this is so honest and true about the way life really works. a real antidote to miss pettigrew...
i read it to follow through on my resolve to read more french and russian literature.
it's also a really interesting look at the hope for change that comes after war and is then quashed by politics.

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Jul 16, 2012 Okla Elliott rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is hands-down one of the best novels to come out of France in the twentieth century. It also serves as an excellent historical document for life in immediate post-war French society. Should be required reading for all serious readers, especially those with interest in twentieth-century feminism, existentialism, and the aftermath of WWII.

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Mar 23, 2011 Cassandra rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is one of the hardest books to get through for me! I had to restart it before finally getting through to the end. There is so much in there - which also makes it one of the most satisfying to finish. Nothing will make you wish you could live in Paris talking shop with french writers, revolutionaries, and philosophers like this book.

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Jun 01, 2010 Mara rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

for all of my bitching and moaning, this was one of those books that answered on one of those Rilkean crying out nights, and it did such a lovely job of telling at least three different stories, and yes, six hundred pages was sometimes a slog, and yes existentialism sometimes makes me reach for a sweater, but I still loved this book and it will be living in my head for a long time.

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About Simone de Beauvoir

"Simone de Beauvoir was a French author and philosopher. She wrote novels, monographs on philosophy, politics, and social issues, essays, biographies, and an autobiography. She is now best known for her metaphysical novels, including She Came to Stay and The Mandarins, and for her 1949 treatise The Second Sex, a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary femin...more

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“She was ready to deny the existence of space and time rather than admit that love might not be eternal.” — 1,708 people liked it

“She would never change, but one day at the touch of a fingertip she would fall to dust.” — 59 people liked it

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