Simone Weil / Francine du Plessix Gray.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gray, Francine du Plessix.

Series:

Penguin lives series

Penguin life

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Weil, Simone, 1909-1943.

Weil, Simone.

Philosophers--France--Biography.

Philosophers.

France.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

246 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Viking, 2001.

Summary:

In Simone Weil, du Plessix Gray vividly evokes the life a patriot, mystic, and activist, a pampered intellectual who believed in the redemptive value of manual labor, an ascetic who craved sensuous beauty, the daughter of a secular Jewish family who yearned to enter the Catholic Church, Simone Weil died at the age of thirty-four after a long struggle with anorexia. But her tremendous intellectual legacy foreshadowed many of the twentieth century's great changes and continues to influence religious thought today. Du Plessix Gray's biography traces Weil's transformation from privileged Parisian student to union organizer, activist, and philosopher, as well as the complex evolution of her ideas on Christianity, politics, and sexuality. This subtle and compelling biography illuminates an enigmatic figure and early feminist whose passion and pathos will fascinate a wide audience.

Contents:

Part I Home

1 The Factory of Genius 3

2 The Master Teacher 22

3 "Normale" 35

Part II Community

4 The Militant Years, 1931-34 51

5 The Year of Factory Work, 1934-35 82

6 The Budding of Faith, 1935-38 103

7 Toward God and War, 1938-39 126

Part III Exile

8 The Debacle 139

9 Marseilles 158

10 New York 182

11 London 193

12 Our Father Who Art in Secret 215.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 242-246).

ISBN:

0670899984

OCLC:

45195633