A Life in Letters
A Life in Letters
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Summary
The first complete English-language collection of Simone Weil’s letters to her loved ones, A Life in Letters deepens appreciation of one of the twentieth century’s great thinkers by offering insight into her relationships, spiritual and occupational experiments, political commitments, restless mobility, and wide-ranging interests.
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A Life in Letters by Simone Weil
When I was a teenager, one of my cousins, who was at the time probably eight or nine years old, told her mother (my aunt) that their neighbour - an older man - asked her to take off her shirt and let him touch her - while she was playing at his house. Instantly, as a kid, she felt something was not right, and she ran back to her house to her mom, where she disclosed what happened. My aunt was terrified but decided not to tell her husband - my cousin's dad - because she feared that he would do something stupid against the neighbour. As my aunt was putting pressure on her husband, they moved to a different neighbourhood only a few weeks after the incident, on the false pretence that the house did not have good air circulation.
Many of these missives are dashed-off notes from camp—a daughter assuaging a mother’s anxiety about her welfare, or scolding her for it, or asking for cigarettes and coffee filters, or reporting cheerfully on a tour of Italy,…or threatening that she ‘won ’t eat for two weeks’ if Mime sends her a care package she hasn’t asked forYet they humanize Weil the icon by the very fact of their banality, and by their poignant testimony to her umbilical dependence as a child who never really left home. -- Judith Thurman * New Yorker *
This book confirms that Simone Weil was saintly—all the way to the tips of her fingernails. Her letters allow us to take a peek at the interaction between her intellectual life and her private life. -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
Simone Weil’s radical empathy illuminates every page of A Life in Letters. Alternating between the quotidian and the quotable, this extraordinary collection allows us to eavesdrop on Weil’s innermost thoughts, opening a window into the heart and mind of a philosopher whose iconoclastic insights are more relevant than ever. -- Eric Weiner, author of The Socrates Express
These letters are a gift for those who love the writings of Simone Weil but wish to learn more of the wild complexities of her life, and their impact on those dear to her. -- Janet Soskice, author of The Sisters of Sinai
Simone Weil is something of an otherworldly figure, at once distant and fascinating, like God, the ultimate nature of reality, and death itself. These letters bring Weil closer to us, even as they make her personality look even more complex. We learn a great deal about Weil from these letters, and yet somehow that only enhances her mystery. Read this book. -- Costica Bradatan, author of In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility
These beautifully translated letters, more casual than her essays and journals, weave together the mundane and the extraordinary. They reveal a woman who continued to grapple with ancient Greek math and to teach herself Babylonian even as she and her family were imperiled by World War II. Her exemplary life and writings inspire us to live more rigorously, and we’re fortunate that these letters are at last available in English. -- Karen Olsson, author of The Weil Conjectures
Appearing for the first time in English, the letters Weil writes to her parents show a different facet of her life and character than we have previously been able to see. They introduce readers to new dimensions of her singularly important philosophy. The introduction by Robert Chenavier is most helpful and informative. Both engrossing and illuminating, this book will appeal not just to Weil's devotees, but also to historians, art critics, literary scholars, and philosophers. -- Françoise Meltzer, author of Dark Lens: Imaging Germany, 1945
This book confirms that Simone Weil was saintly—all the way to the tips of her fingernails. Her letters allow us to take a peek at the interaction between her intellectual life and her private life. -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
Simone Weil’s radical empathy illuminates every page of A Life in Letters. Alternating between the quotidian and the quotable, this extraordinary collection allows us to eavesdrop on Weil’s innermost thoughts, opening a window into the heart and mind of a philosopher whose iconoclastic insights are more relevant than ever. -- Eric Weiner, author of The Socrates Express
These letters are a gift for those who love the writings of Simone Weil but wish to learn more of the wild complexities of her life, and their impact on those dear to her. -- Janet Soskice, author of The Sisters of Sinai
Simone Weil is something of an otherworldly figure, at once distant and fascinating, like God, the ultimate nature of reality, and death itself. These letters bring Weil closer to us, even as they make her personality look even more complex. We learn a great deal about Weil from these letters, and yet somehow that only enhances her mystery. Read this book. -- Costica Bradatan, author of In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility
These beautifully translated letters, more casual than her essays and journals, weave together the mundane and the extraordinary. They reveal a woman who continued to grapple with ancient Greek math and to teach herself Babylonian even as she and her family were imperiled by World War II. Her exemplary life and writings inspire us to live more rigorously, and we’re fortunate that these letters are at last available in English. -- Karen Olsson, author of The Weil Conjectures
Appearing for the first time in English, the letters Weil writes to her parents show a different facet of her life and character than we have previously been able to see. They introduce readers to new dimensions of her singularly important philosophy. The introduction by Robert Chenavier is most helpful and informative. Both engrossing and illuminating, this book will appeal not just to Weil's devotees, but also to historians, art critics, literary scholars, and philosophers. -- Françoise Meltzer, author of Dark Lens: Imaging Germany, 1945
Simone Weil (1909–1943) was a French philosopher, mystic, and political activist, widely considered one of the most original thinkers of the twentieth century. Robert Chenavier is President of the Association for the Study of Simone Weil’s Thought and the author of four books, most recently Simone Weil, une Juive antisémite? André A. Devaux (1921–2017) was Professor of Philosophy at the Sorbonne (Paris IV).
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780674292376 |
| ISBN 10 | 0674292375 |
| Title | A Life in Letters |
| Author | Simone Weil |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Harvard University Press |
| Year published | 2024-08-27 |
| Number of pages | 384 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |