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Vida de Simone Weil
En esta Vida de Simone Weil, los recuerdos de su familia y amigos, entre los que se encontraba la autora de la biografía, junto con gran número de testimonios de quienes la conocieron en las más diversas circunstancias enmarcan y contextualizan los textos y cartas inéditas de la filósofa que aquí se reúnen. Vida y pensamiento corren en paralelo en esta biografía que, siguiendo su curso año tras año, traza las etapas que constituyen la doctrina vigorosa y profunda de Simone Weil, tanto en el terreno político y social como en el filosófico. Es la vida intensa de un ser absolutamente sincero, uno de los más dotados y de mayor coraje de nuestro tiempo, en el que compromiso inflexible con la verdad y tierna entrega al bien de sus congéneres labraron un corazón de rara nobleza, extraordinariamente puro.
736 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
About the author
Simone Pétrement
6 books3 followersSimone Pétrement, née le 6 juin 1907 à Nemours et morte le 15 décembre 1992 à Margency, est une philosophe française spécialisée dans les origines chrétiennes du gnosticisme.
Étudiante au lycée Henri IV dans la khâgne d'Alain, elle fut camarade de classe de Simone Weil. Elle a été élève de l'École normale supérieure (promotion L1927 ; l'une des trois premières femmes en lettres, avec Clémence Ramnoux et Suzanne Roubaud), agrégée de philosophie (1931) puis docteur ès lettres (Paris, 1947). Elle a exercé les fonctions de Conservateur à la Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Son essai Le Dieu séparé a été couronné en 1985 par le prix Montyon de l'Académie française, qui lui avait déjà précédemment décerné en 1974, le prix Broquette-Gonin pour sa biographie La vie de Simone Weil.
Étudiante au lycée Henri IV dans la khâgne d'Alain, elle fut camarade de classe de Simone Weil. Elle a été élève de l'École normale supérieure (promotion L1927 ; l'une des trois premières femmes en lettres, avec Clémence Ramnoux et Suzanne Roubaud), agrégée de philosophie (1931) puis docteur ès lettres (Paris, 1947). Elle a exercé les fonctions de Conservateur à la Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Son essai Le Dieu séparé a été couronné en 1985 par le prix Montyon de l'Académie française, qui lui avait déjà précédemment décerné en 1974, le prix Broquette-Gonin pour sa biographie La vie de Simone Weil.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 19, 2015
How must you live your life?
Sometimes it depends on what you have and what you decide to do with it. Simone Weil was a beautiful mind. If minds could exist on their own and see each other Simone Weil’s would probably be the Marilyn Monroe of minds with the other pulsating consciousness lusting after her and making her the focal point of their masturbatory dreams. She made good use of what she had, studying even the esoteric, teaching, writing one penetrating essay after another about politics, humankind, love, God. She died very young—34 years old—but she had done so much that her friend Simone Petrement was able to come up with a biography this thick with every thing she had done, said and wrote during her brief life.
She was Jewish, on the verge of getting baptised into the Catholic faith but couldn’t get herself reconciled with the apparent cruelty of the God of the Old Testament and the questions she had raised but couldn’t find any adequate answers to. She probably died a virgin, never had even a boyfriend, most likely never loved romantically, never cared about her appearance, or fashion, ate very little and had constant headaches. Many considered her a saint. But what a saint! She carried a gun during the Spanish civil war. When Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia she wanted do organize a team of parachutists so she can be there and help defend the country. When her own country (France) was next invaded by the Nazis she wanted to organise frontline nurses to help the dying and wounded. When she contracted tuberculosis she had refused food because her countrymen were starving too.
And so she died with bad lungs, an empty stomach and failed organs.
Sometimes it depends on what you have and what you decide to do with it. Simone Weil was a beautiful mind. If minds could exist on their own and see each other Simone Weil’s would probably be the Marilyn Monroe of minds with the other pulsating consciousness lusting after her and making her the focal point of their masturbatory dreams. She made good use of what she had, studying even the esoteric, teaching, writing one penetrating essay after another about politics, humankind, love, God. She died very young—34 years old—but she had done so much that her friend Simone Petrement was able to come up with a biography this thick with every thing she had done, said and wrote during her brief life.
She was Jewish, on the verge of getting baptised into the Catholic faith but couldn’t get herself reconciled with the apparent cruelty of the God of the Old Testament and the questions she had raised but couldn’t find any adequate answers to. She probably died a virgin, never had even a boyfriend, most likely never loved romantically, never cared about her appearance, or fashion, ate very little and had constant headaches. Many considered her a saint. But what a saint! She carried a gun during the Spanish civil war. When Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia she wanted do organize a team of parachutists so she can be there and help defend the country. When her own country (France) was next invaded by the Nazis she wanted to organise frontline nurses to help the dying and wounded. When she contracted tuberculosis she had refused food because her countrymen were starving too.
And so she died with bad lungs, an empty stomach and failed organs.
July 9, 2014
It will be hard to surpass this biography, insomuch as it was by one of Simone Weil's earliest known friends, who records both the details and the idealism of Weil's search for truth. This includes a note about her friendship with Rene Daumal, who was tutoring her in Sanskrit so that she might read the Gita in the original Sanskrit much as she dug into the Christian gospels in their original Greek.
From scholar to pacifist street radical to anti-Franco irregular in the Spanish Civil War, and on to Christian mystic, and francophone visionary struggling to save the soul of postwar Europe, even as the outcome was as yet undecided, Petrement fills in many of the details that the standard Weil hagiographies omit.
A core document for the study of Simone Weil, her influences and her influence on so many, including popes, Albert Camus, Andre Gide, T.S.Eliot and others.
From scholar to pacifist street radical to anti-Franco irregular in the Spanish Civil War, and on to Christian mystic, and francophone visionary struggling to save the soul of postwar Europe, even as the outcome was as yet undecided, Petrement fills in many of the details that the standard Weil hagiographies omit.
A core document for the study of Simone Weil, her influences and her influence on so many, including popes, Albert Camus, Andre Gide, T.S.Eliot and others.
January 17, 2020
I knew absolutely nothing about Simone Weil, but found this book on my shelves, so I read it (I think it was either my dad’s or he gave it to me years ago). It was extremely enriching to have read, but it was also SO BORING for much of it (maybe this would not be the case for any readers who already knew of/were interested in Weil). I thought the author was generally fair but too enraptured by her good friend to not be overly generous in her assessment. Weil was infuriatingly annoying, immature, and naive, I thought; but she was also extremely complex, empathetic, and smart. Overall a complicated person who had a lot to contribute, but I think it’s tragic that she died unnecessarily, of anorexia. She hurt a lot of people through her selfishness, it seems to me. I don’t really think she’s a “good person,” but the author goes so fair as to say she’s saintly. Strange.
May 24, 2012
An extraordinary biography of an extraordinay genius!
April 27, 2024
Obviamente no me leí las 600 páginas llegaría como mucho a las 200 pero ya no voy a leer más o por lo menos no para Agís. Me lo guardo para cuando tenga tiempo porque es muy bonito ver la vida de un personaje tan fascinante desde los ojos de quien probablemente estuvo enamorada perdida de ella jejejeje
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January 17, 2016would recommend this as a bibliography for those interested in delving into weil's writing. if you are expecting a gripping account of weil's life-and if any life has the.makings of a gripping account it is hers - than you will be disappointed.
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February 5, 2010Wonderful Bio of Simone Weil
June 24, 2026
The most informative and detailed version of any biography out there about Weil. With so many ideas and theories out there about Weil, Pétrement has certainly gifted the world the most in-depth written version of Weil's tremendous yet short life.
At times, the book can lack direct reference to Weil's writing, but overall it gives us a deep understanding of the person behind some of the most important pieces written during the Second World War.
At times, the book can lack direct reference to Weil's writing, but overall it gives us a deep understanding of the person behind some of the most important pieces written during the Second World War.
December 5, 2023
I enjoyed this biography very much. It is extremely detailed but I enjoyed all those details. I really didn’t know much about Simone Weil—I hadn’t read any of her work but wanted to know more about her as I have been seeking out more examples of Christian women (other than missionaries). I love Weil’s commitment to living honestly and her unrestrained generosity.
March 1, 2020
For me, because she was a peer, intimate and fellow philosopher, the most telling biography of Simone Weil. I've read most and this one and Gabrialla Fiori's psychological portrait - together with the notebooks, of course, the most compelling illustration of Simone Weil's approach to TRUTH.
January 4, 2019
700 páginas de slapstick martirológico. No es buena idea dejar tu biografía en manos de una amiga cursi, a menos que tu vida haya sido lo bastante hilarante.
November 6, 2019
Deposito d'oro.
March 30, 2021
Too much details. Not interested in such details.
April 12, 2024
The person who put this together had lots of information but no talent for narrative or biographical writing. Useful as a set of sources, not much fun to read.
May 5, 2026
Nothing can be more comprehensive of such a brilliant life. maybe even too comprehensive, and maybe too "product of it's time", spending too much time on the times micro-political struggles. But overall it is extremely brilliant.
January 9, 2016
I was with Weil throughout a lot of her asceticism and altruism, but at some point (I think after leaving Marseilles), "I" parted ways with her, and her death silenced the admirability of what she did with her life before, for me; the admirability of much I admired as I first read it. A speechlessness there. The book itself is a pile of material; sometimes, to get through, work; ending arbitrarily, which I suppose is life, "under the sun".
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews