All Men Are Mortal
1946 • 352 pages
Ratings4
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings4
Average rating3.5
When the beautiful, ambitious actress Regina takes Fosca into her life and learns his amazing truth, she is obsessed with the thought that in his memory her performances will live for ever. But, as he recounts the story of his existence over more than six centuries, as she learns of his involvement in some of the most significant events in history and how human hope and love have withered in him, she finally understands the implications for him and for love. ALL MEN ARE MORTAL was filmed in 1994, starring Irene Jacob, Marianne Sagebrecht and Stephen Rea.
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Found this one in a little trading library near my house. I think it's my favorite of deBeauvoir's fiction work. It can still be heavy-handed in the way that her fiction tends to be for me, but some of that may be in the translation, who knows? (Lots of “I exist and the world exists for me” stuff, like anybody but existentialists talks/thinks this way.)
That said, I loved the almost science-fiction-y take on what it might mean for a person to live forever, and I really enjoyed the history lesson as our protagonist moves through history, trying to do good, but failing, failing, failing.
