In her most famous novel, The Mandarins, Simone de Beauvoir takes an unflinching look at Parisian intellectual society at the end of World War II. In fictionally relating the stories of those around her Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Arthur Koestler, Nelson Algren de Beauvoir dissects the emotional and philosophical currents of her time. At once an engrossing drama and an intriguing political tale, The Mandarins is the emotional odyssey of a woman torn between her inner desires and her public life. “Much more than a roman a clef . . . a moving and engrossing novel.” New York Times