"The Mandarins" by Simone de Beauvoir
Above: "The Mandarins," Simone de Beauvoir - 610 pages.
Reading this book isn't so much like reading as taking part in a myriad of simultaneous conversations as the characters argue, debate, fall in and out of love, drink champagne in cellar bars, and go dancing till the early hours of the Paris morning.
I completed reading this novel today.
I participate in a Park City; Utah coffee group called La Societe Deux Magots (LSDM). www.lsdm-parkcity.com. LSDM meets regularly at Wasatch Bagel. From our website: "LSDM members are the rightful heirs of a group of intellectuals who met daily at Café Deux Magots, in Paris, France in the 1930's." De Beauvoir, Hemingway, Camus, Sartre and Koestler were part of that group. Of course, our claim of inheriting the mantle of the Deux Magots French intellectuals is tongue in cheek, but we still aspire to push the envelope of knowledge a bit further out each time we meet. Reading the novels of the 1930's "deux magots" group adds to that knowledge quest.
"The Mandarins" is about a group of left leaning French intellectuals as they emerge from the aftermath of World War II. The group struggles to deal with the fall-out of the Occupation, the reckoning of collaboration, and the uneasy negotiations between the socialist left and the communist party. Though De Beauvoir has insisted that "The Mandarins" is not a roman a clef, characters in the novel are considered to be representative of De Beauvoir's well known intellectual friends. The novel is a rich source of history of the post war period in France.
Henri Perron (considered to be Albert Camus) is the editor of the leftist newspaper L'Espoir. (It was the name of a clandestine newspaper of the French Resistance 1944–1945.) He has been in a relationship with Paula for the past 10 years. Previously in love, he is now unhappily attached. Henri primarily sees himself as a writer and struggles with his increasing involvement in the political arena.
Robert Dubreuilh (considered to be Jean-Paul Sartre) is the founder and leader of the SRL, a liberal, non-Communist political group. He is partly responsible for Henri's literary success, and the two are close personal friends.
Anne Dubreuilh (considered to be Beauvoir herself) is the wife of Robert. She is a practicing psychoanalyst. She has an affair with the American writer Lewis Brogan. Her reflections on the lives of the other characters comprise a large portion of the text.
Paula Mareuil is Henri's girlfriend. She is unrelentingly committed to her relationship with Henri, despite his indifference and, later, loathing and resentment. She develops severe delusions and paranoia regarding this relationship and is forced to seek medical treatment.
Nadine Dubreuilh is Robert and Anne's daughter. Nadine is haunted by the death of her Jewish boyfriend Diego during the French Resistance. She has an affair with Henri early in the course of the novel and later marries him and has a child by him.
Lewis Brogan (considered to be Nelson Algren, to whom the book is dedicated) is an American writer with whom Anne has an extended affair.
Scriassine's character is drawn on Arthur Koestler.
Among others, the novel focuses on gender politics. From Paula, who refuses to accept that her long-term lover, Henri, no longer cares for her, to Anne who cannot step outside of her comfort zone, to Anne's daughter, Nadine, who is only 17 but has already lost loved ones to the war. Themes include the dynamics of power between men and women, the insecurity which exists in love relationships, particularly with seeming more dependent women, and the relationships between women and their bodies as they age.
The characters are complex. There seem to be no easy answers to their labyrinthine moral dilemmas.
Leftist intellectuals in post war France, socialist or communist, held out great hope for the success of the Soviet Union, fearing the world domination of the greedy American capitalists. When word seeps out that Stalin has created forced labor camps (the gulag system), they are divided as to how to process the revelation. Should Henri expose Soviet perfidy in his weekly socialist newspaper, L'Espoir? This had the risk of pushing him into the camp of the anti-communist, right wing Gaullists. He could become a pariah amongst the French left.
In fact, Henri, believing the truth should out, exposed the Soviet gulag system. Consequently, he had a falling out (a relationship later restored) with his best friend Robert, who was believed to be close to the communists, but not a party member. Henri's newspaper, L'Espoir, lost circulation and for a time, Henri became persona non grata amongst the intellectual set. Henri was able to fall back on his stature as a successful novelist and playwright.
Yet intellectually honest Henri on the philosophical level, could be deceitful on the personal level. Henri had an open affair with a beautiful, former collaborator, who played the leading lady in a successful play he had launched on the Paris stage. So besotted was Henri with Josephine, that he perjured himself to exonerate an accused collaborator (Henri was a well-respected resistance operative) who threatened to expose his lover. Later, Henri was a willing accessory to a murder which eliminated another potential blackmailer.
Anne, attending a conference of psychoanalysts in New York City, meets American author Lewis Brogan. They commence a torrid love affair. Anne wants a three month a year relationship. She can't give up her life in Paris and does not understand Lewis' insistence that Anne be wholly committed to their relationship. The transatlantic relationship carries on for three years then slowly dies. Anne, devastated and demoralized, returns to Paris and considers suicide. She does not follow through.
Reading this book isn't so much like reading as taking part in a myriad of simultaneous conversations as the characters argue, debate, fall in and out of love, drink champagne in cellar bars, and go dancing till the early hours of the Paris morning.
At the heart of the book are a series of profound engagements with philosophical questions of how we should live in the face of an uncaring universe and the certainty of death - and characters are allowed to find their own ways of negotiating what it means to live a good life and to find a form of happiness.
This is a deep, rich and completely absorbing read written in uncluttered prose. There's nothing neatly patterned, contrived, or expected about "The Mandarins" and characters continue to surprise right to the end.
"The Mandarins" is a French classic. It won France's top book award, La Prix Goncort, in 1954.