Les Mandarins

Writers have always been put on the spot by the question: Why do you write? But they have probably never felt as perplexed as they did in the aftermath of the last war. Stunned by four years of horror and the prospects that suddenly opened up to the world, they discovered that the old values had run their course and that a new image of humanity was emerging: what role did the future hold for them? Could words still serve a purpose? For whom? For what? Between nihilism, aestheticism, and political action, where did literature stand?
This book offers no answers to these questions: it is a novel. It merely tells the story of people who asked them. It is often said that writers are not fictional characters: yet the adventures of the mind are as real as any others and involve the whole individual; why not try to tell their stories? 
The experience this book describes was actually lived by many French intellectuals; between them and the heroes of The Mandarins, there is therefore a shared situation: this is the only key this book offers. The reader would be greatly mistaken to claim to find any others.