All Men Are Mortal

All Men are Mortal

Cover of the first edition
Author	Simone de Beauvoir
Original title	Tous les hommes sont mortels
Country	France
Language	French
Genre	Metaphysical novel
Publication date	1946
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)

All Men are Mortal (French: Tous les hommes sont mortels) is a 1946 novel by Simone de Beauvoir. It tells the story of Raimon Fosca, a man cursed to live forever. The first American edition of this work was published by The World Publishing Company. Cleveland and New York, 1955. It was adapted into a 1995 film of the same name.

Regina is a young theatrical actress. Her career seems to be promising and her reputation becomes wider with every tour and performance. But she is not content. The sparks of attention in the eyes of her audience seem fleeting and the praises seem typical rather than unique. She can not accept herself sharing their attention and regards with her co-star Florence.

Following a performance in Rouen, Regina chooses to stand aside from her theatrical troupe and starts an internal monologue concerning her uniqueness, or lack thereof, among other women. She keeps comparing herself to Florence and focusing on the current love life of her fellow actress. She bitterly acknowledges that Florence is probably not thinking about her and neither are the other people around her. Then she notices another man who seems to pay little attention to her, Raymond Fosca.

Fosca is described as a reasonably attractive with a crooked nose, tall and athletic, seemingly young but with a passionless face and empty eyes that remind Regina of her father in his deathbed.

Soon enough Regina finds that Fosca resides in the same hotel as her theatrical troupe. He has piqued the curiosity of the staff and several visitors for his peculiar habits. He had been staying in the hotel for a month but hardly spoke to anybody and appeared deaf to any attempts to speak to him. He spent his days in the garden, sitting in silence even in rain. He never changed clothes and no one had seen him eat anything.

A curious Regina enters his room in his absence and finds release papers from an asylum, claiming the man suffered from amnesia and was incarcerated for an unknown amount of time. He was considered harmless and released a month before. She decides to use the information to approach Raymond Fosca. However Fosca is not in the mood for conversations. Regina asks him for a way to escape her boredom. He only asks how old the actress is. He takes her report of being twenty-eight-years-old and estimates she has about fifty more years to endure. Then she would be free of boredom.

Despite his warnings to stay away from him, Regina makes a habit of visiting him. Fosca comments that due to her time has started flowing for him again. Already the man leaves the hotel for the first time in a month to satisfy a new craving for cigarettes. He starts confiding in her and explains that he has no amnesia. Far from it, he remembers everything from his life. Even his thirty years in the asylum.