The Power of Words

In these selected writings by Simone Weil – philosopher, activist, mystic – she explores the influence of language employed by the powerful, an individual’s rights and responsibilities, and foods of the soul such as liberty, truth, security and equality. Provocative, eloquent and deeply moral, these are essays to untangle the intangible, nourish the spirit and inspire thought. Simone Weil (1909-43) was a French political activist, mystic and a singular figure in French philosophy. She studied at the elite École Normale Supérieure, obtained her agrégation (teaching diploma) in philosophy in 1931, worked at Renault car factory from 1934 to 1935, faught with the anarchist Durruti Column in 1936 at the start of the Spanish Civil War and Revolution, and worked as a farm labourer in 1941. She left France in 1942 for New York and then London, where she worked for General de Gaulle’s Free French movement. Most of her works, published posthumously, consist of some notebooks and a collection of religious essays. They include, in English, Waiting for God (1951), Gravity and Grace (1952), The Need for Roots (1952), Notebooks (two volumes, 1956), Oppression and Liberty (1958) and Selected Essays, 1934-1943 (1962).