Albert Camus called her "the only great spirit of our time." She was one of the most prominent French political thinkers of this century. She was a brilliant social activist, a vigilant and critical Marxist. Her religious and philosophical writings are remarkable in their originality. And yet Simone Weil died without ever writing a complete book, without ever formulating a major intellectual testament.

In this study of her life and thought, John Hellman syn- thesizes insights drawn from her varied, fragmentary writings-notebooks, essays, and letters-into a single, highly original view of the world. This fascinating book reinforces the belief that Simone Weil remains one of the most imaginative and out-of-the- ordinary forces in twentieth-century political thought and social activism.