When Things of the Spirit Come First

When Things of the Spirit Come First is Simone de Beauvoir's first work of fiction. It consists of five short stories woven together in a way that is structurally similar to a more traditional novel. Beauvoir submitted this collection of interlinked stories to a publisher in 1937, but it was rejected by both Gallimard and Grasset. Gallimard eventually published it in 1979, and the first English translation appeared from Pantheon in 1982.

The first story, "Marcelle", tells of the eldest of three siblings, who marries an abusive artist. "Chantal" follows a lycée philosophy teacher who idealizes her life and becomes involved in the lives of her students, but ultimately refuses to help them. "Lisa", the shortest, concerns a girl who struggles to live a spiritual life while existing in a physical body. "Anne", the fourth, draws on many of Beauvoir's earlier attempts at writing and parallels the story of her friend Elizabeth Mabille ("Zaza"), who died soon after her mother refused to allow her to marry Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The final story, "Marguerite", expresses the author's existentialist conviction that life must be experienced and that one should "look things straight in the face, without accepting oracles or ready-made values."