Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #194703 in Books
• Published on: 1992-05
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 345 pages

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

Customer Reviews

the Realm of Existentialism...
the Realm of Existentialism...

In the middle of a drought?
If it's yellow, let it mellow.
If it's brown, flush it down.

but, if it's a murky green and comes in a dusty old bottle from ancient Egypt, whose keeper is a crusty old street beggar being marched off to his death (to decrease the population of the city of Coroma because there is not enough to feed women, children and the old -- all are sacrificed in this book) -- well, that's the "Immortality Potion" in Simone de Beauvoir's All Men are Mortal -- and, there is only enough for One!

Would you drink it?

Fosca does!

The book begins in the present day, with Regina, an actress (blond, generous, ambitious, scared of death) who is not going to live forever (being a mere mortal, et al), but would like to be remembered...and, thus, live forever. early in the book, Regina discovers Fosca, who convinces her (by slitting his throat from ear-to-ear -- and then magically healing before she can faint) that he is immortal. hmmm, I guess that would work for me.

What can one do with so much time?

a) become a conquer -- crush everything, take all the booty

b) become a political conquer -- crush some things, take some booty "I decided to change my methods. Renouncing military parades, pitched battles and useless campaigns, I put all my efforts into weakening the enemy republics by practicing cunning politics." When you have "forever" on your side, most republics are enemy republics.

c) ho-hum (bored after so many years of fighting and collecting the same old booty) -- lead your armies up to the intended target and potential booty, and then just walk away without striking? Why? because suddenly, one is faced with the absurdity of it all, and enveloped with nausea.

d) Have a son; give him everything; protect him from all things harmful -- only to have him exercise his free-will and die in battle...doing what he most wanted to do -- see "a)" above.

e) Wait a minute...if one is immortal and there are obviously no gods, all things are possible -- How about one ruler for the entire planet, forever -- but through the use of mere mortals?

...and, this is only the first half of Simone de Beauvoir's (exquisitely crafted existential tale) All Men Are Mortal!

Never a dull moment! Beautifully translated. Historically, well researched and finely tuned. One scenario seamlessly fades into the next as one traverses Fosca's adventures of Immortality. This book reeks with basic existential themes. --Katharena Eiermann, 2007, the Realm of Existentialism -- Presidential Hopeful

All Men Are Mortal by Simone de Beauvoir

All Men Are Mortal
This is an interesting book. It's a good mix for the existentialist history fan. Simone de Beauvoir did a great job of capturing the moods of the various time periods she wrote about. I'm looking forward to reading some of her other books.

Useful for courses in Existentialism
In teaching undergraduates Existentialism, I found this book to be a wonderful addition to Sartre's _Being and Nothingness_, Buber's _I and Thou_ and Marcuse's _One-Dimensional Man._ In the novel, especially in the Prologue, De Beauvoir hits all the right chords and themes--the uneasy duality and unity of being-for-self and being-for Others; the necessity and contingency of facticity; the surpassing power of transcendence. Students seem to 'rest their eyes' from the abstract power of dialectic in Sartre and Marcuse on the very concrete descriptions that de Beauvoir offers. Following the novel with her _Ethics of Ambiguity_ only served to ground students further in the character of existentialism and its necessary outpouring into a finite, meaningful, ethical life. A good companion to this piece would be John Russon's _Human Experience_, especially the chapter he has on Memory and how we deposit our memories into the things of our experience. With that in mind, even ordinary passages of the novel, like the one in the Prologue where Annie makes Fosca pancakes and Regina wants them too, despite herself, take on much more meaning. For whom is the absolute? For the one who eats pancakes, the one for whom pancakes matter even when she doesn't want to want them.