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Cover of The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir

The Mandarins

Simone de Beauvoir

  • 610 pages · about 10 hours
  • First published 1954
  • 62 editions
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1 About this book

The Mandarins (French: Les Mandarins) is a 1954 roman à clef by Simone de Beauvoir, for which she won that year's Prix Goncourt, awarded annually to the best and most imaginative prose work. The Mandarins was first published in English in 1956 as a translation by Leonard M. Friedman.

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

Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Good for readers who want: a love story and a long read.

  • Romance
  • Women
  • Intellectual life
  • Intellectuals
  • Databases
  • France

2 About Simone de Beauvoir

1908–1986

Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, nor was she considered one at the time of her death, she had a significant influence on both feminist existentialism and feminist theory.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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