Gravit y and Grace

‘One of the most profound religious thinkers of modern times.’

The Twentieth Century, 1961

‘Time and again she pierces the veil of complacency and brings the reader face to face with the deepest levels of existence.’

Church Times

‘We must simply expose ourselves to the personality of a woman of genius, or a kind of genius akin to that of the saints.’

T. S. Eliot

‘The best spiritual writer of this century.’

André Gide

‘The light Simone shines makes everything seem, at once, reassuringly recognizable and so luminous as to be heavenly.’

Malcolm Muggeridge

‘In France she is ranked with Pascal by some, condemned as a dangerous heretic by others, and recognized as a genius by all.’

New York Times Book Review

 

Simone

Weil

Gravity and Grace

First complete English language edition

With an introduction and postscript by

Gustave Thibon

Translated by Emma Crawford and

Mario von der Ruhr

London and New York

 

La Pesanteur et la grâce first published 1947

by Librairie PLON, Paris

First English edition published 1952

by Routledge & Kegan Paul

First published in Routledge Classics 2002

by Routledge

11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.

© 1947, 1999 Librairie PLON

Translation of Chapter entitled ‘Israel’ and Postscript ©2002

Mario von der Ruhr

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter

invented, including photocopying and recording, or in

any information storage or retrieval system, without

permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN 0-203-16845-3 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-26364-2 (Adobe eReader Format)

ISBN 0–415–29000–7 (hbk)

ISBN 0–415–29001–5 (pbk)