Selected Essays 1934-43

by Simone Weil

The book contains thirteen essays by Simone Weil selected and translated by Sir Richard Rees. Their themes are philosophical, historical, and political.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Essays

231 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Simone Weil was a French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist. Weil was born in Paris to Alsatian agnostic Jewish parents who fled the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. Her brilliance, ascetic lifestyle, introversion, and eccentricity limited her ability to mix with others, but not to teach and participate in political movements of her time. She wrote extensively with both insight and breadth about political movements of which she was a part and later about spiritual mysticism. Weil biographer Gabriella Fiori writes that Weil was "a moral genius in the orbit of ethics, a genius of immense revolutionary range".

Reviews

[Donna Gottlieb]

The essays about the Roman Empire, Hitler, and Nazi Germany are truly outstanding. The others did not wow me.

[Andrew Wyman]

One of the G.O.A.Ts. All of her works should be read and digested. This one is one of her strongest collections