The Mandarins
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Summary
The novel has a strong documentary flavor: the relationship between the Dubreuils corresponds to the mutual attachment, respect, and independence between Beauvoir and Sartre. Anne Dubreuil's image as an intellectual woman and Robert Dubreuil's identity as a famous writer engaged in politics closely match the real-life Beauvoir and Sartre. Henri Perron corresponds to the French writer Camus. Camus met Sartre in 1943, and Sartre became Camus's guide in the literary world; Camus, as an active militant, had already founded the left-wing underground daily Combat, and he drew Sartre, who was then eager to "commit," into genuine participation in the Resistance. In 1952, Les Temps modernes, edited by Sartre, published an article attacking Camus, which ultimately led to the break between the two. In the novel, the ring that the American writer Lewis gives to Anne is, in reality, the ring Beauvoir wore when she was buried at Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris.
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in Beauvoir, Sartre, Camus, and their era
- Those who enjoy novels of ideas and are willing to read group portraits of intellectuals
- Students and researchers of postwar French literature and leftist thought
- Literary readers who can accept length, heavy dialogue, and discussion
Not a good fit for
- General fiction readers seeking tight plotting and dramatic conflict
- Those entirely unfamiliar with and uninterested in postwar French politics and literary circles
- Readers hoping for Beauvoir's philosophical treatises rather than a novel
Reading tips
- First learn about the historical background of France around the Liberation of 1944–1945, then enter the character relationships
- Read against the lives and changing relationship of Sartre and Camus to appreciate the novel's documentary quality
- Slow down over the passages involving the Dubreuilh couple and Anne, noting how independence and attachment coexist
- After finishing, revisit the debates about "engagement" in the book and sort out your own position
About the publisher
Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 第一章
- 第二章
- 第三章
- 第四章
- 第五章
- 第六章
- 第七章
- 第八章
- 第九章
- 第十章
- 第十一章
- 第十二章
FAQ
What is the relationship between this book and Beauvoir's philosophical works?
Whom do the characters in the novel correspond to in reality?
It is quite long—how can I read it without giving up halfway?
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About the author
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) was a French existentialist writer, philosopher, and pioneering feminist theorist, born and died in Paris. She graduated from the Sorbonne, passed the philosophy agrégation in 1929 and met Sartre, and in 1945 co-founded Les Temps modernes with Sartre and others. Her landmark work The Second Sex laid the foundation of modern feminist theory, examining women's condition through facts, myths, and lived experience; her novel The Mandarins won the 1954 Prix Goncourt. Her autobiographical works, including All Said and Done, Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, A Very Easy Death, and The Ethics of Ambiguity, combine philosophical reflection with literary quality and span biography, social and cultural criticism, and foreign literature, earning her a wide readership in the Chinese-speaking world.
Xu Jun is a translator long engaged in the translation and study of foreign literature. Public information about him is limited, and his dates of birth and death, nationality, and educational background are not clearly recorded. Twelve of his works are held in the collection, covering French and European literary classics as well as writers' biographies. His representative translations include volumes such as Cousin Bette from the Balzac collection, along with The Alder King, A Man of Letters, Ignorance, The Interrogation, and Milan Kundera: A Writer's Life. There is also A Man of Letters: Selected Translations by Xu Jun, which presents his translation style. Judging from these titles, he focuses on French literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, covering both novels and biographies, and his translations attend closely to the tone and narrative rhythm of the originals, giving him a certain influence in the translation of foreign literature and world classics.
