|
|
All Men Are Mortal |
 |
Our Price - $10.17
21 Used - from $4.06
23 New - from $8.29
Availability - Usually ships in 24 hours
 
|
|
|
|
All Men Are Mortal
Probably de Beauvoir's strangest and most compelling novel, this is the captivating story of a beautiful young actress who revives a downcast stranger at a French resort. He becomes thoroughly attached to her and confides a terrifying truth: he is immortal. But having been resuscitated into enjoying life again, he soon starts breaking free from her grasp and all notions of mortality.
All Men Are Mortal Accessories
All Men Are Mortal Reviews
There's never enough time in a day to accomplish all that you would like to do...unless, perhaps, you knew had eternity to do whatever floats your boat. Imagine a wizened beggar offering you a dusty old bottle filled with cloudy green liquid and telling you it's the "elixir of immortality" (p.84)...do you dare drink it?
In All Men Are Mortal, Simone de Beauvoir weaves philosophy and history within a fantastic tale of one man's journey into immortality. First you meet Regina, a petty, vain, self-centered, young actress, who desires immortality. When she meets the odd stranger Raymond Fosca in Rouen, she decides to bring him home with her to Paris to "bring him back to his senses," as her boyfriend Roger tells another friend. (p. 18) When Fosca reveals to her he is immortal, she wants to cling to him, hoping to somehow benefit from his immortality.
She alone wants to exist for Fosca, despite Roger's admonition that "it's better to be loved by someone who's mortal, but who only loves you." (p. 39). Fosca knows better; he has already loved--more than once. He leaves her and Paris, but Regina finds him again. Why won't he return, she asks? She entreats him to tell his story to her to help her understand his "curse", and thus she (and you!) is propelled backwards and forwards into Fosca's immortal life.
There is so much history in this story that I was compelled to look up certain historical figures such as Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and Martin Luther, whom I'm only vaguely familiar with from jr. high history. It was then that I realized de Beauvoir had to have meticulously researched A LOT of history in order to seamlessly weave Fosca into medieval times through the 20th century...amazing!
Through Fosca, you see how others view him as an immortal, and yet you see how his character becomes numb, having accomplished just about everything a man can do in life--knowing he doesn't have a deadline to meet. He makes seemingly rash (selfish) decisions as well as thoughtful ones (thinking of others), through the centuries. For sure, he has a very adventurous life--but at what cost?
Only late night hours forced me to stop reading--otherwise, this was hard to put down. It kept me engaged with Fosca's thoughts and emotions...I thoroughly enjoyed it!
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
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.
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.
An amazing book. It tells the tale of Fosca who is cursed with immortality. Only in reading his tale do you fully understand and appreciate that because life is fleeting it is perfect. To outlive all those you've ever loved, as Fosca does, would be torture.
A must read.
|
|
|
