What is Existentialism? by Simone de Beauvoir

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“I feel within me that void which is myself; I feel that I am not.” (63)

“One never arrives anywhere. There are only points of departure.” (51)

“Nothing will deliver me from the risk and anguish of my freedom.” (71)

Two essays: “What is Existentialism?” and “Pyrrhus and Cineas” — the first short, the second long, and both stellar. Her explorations with the human condition are a free-flowing wit engaged with a vast breadth of philosophy and literature and at the same time transcending it; her voice is singular, biting, yet open-ended. Reading this is like floating down a river, not knowing where the river leads, or what rapids might appear round the next bend, suspense and pleasure mixed into a sweet ambivalence.