Episode 299: Oh the Humility!

Published in 1954, 'The Mandarins' is a semiautobiographical novel by Simone de Beauvoir that won the Prix Goncourt. The book delves into the lives of post-World War II leftist intellectuals in France, particularly focusing on their attempts to engage in political activism and their struggles with the complexities of the post-war period. The novel is set against the backdrop of the Cold War and explores the personal and ideological conflicts among its characters, who are loosely based on de Beauvoir's own circle, including her relationship with American writer Nelson Algren. The story is told through alternating chapters, one in the third person about Henri Perron, a writer and editor, and the other in the first person by Anne Dubreuilh, a psychiatrist, who is a character modeled after de Beauvoir herself. The novel addresses themes of existentialism, political activism, and the moral dilemmas faced by intellectuals in a changing world[1][2][5].