clings to her, but he becomes increasingly aware of the insurmountable contrast with his fellow human beings, and becomes more and more indifferent to life. After Marianne's death, he finally abandons his scientific interests. In the Paris of the July Revolution of 1830, Fosca is able to take an interest in the new trends of the time for a last time, partly because one of the revolutionaries is a descendant of his. But as before, he sees in the latter's efforts to improve people's lives mainly the recurring failure. He does not find any consolation for his personal fate in this either. Not even the love of the revolutionary Laure can reach him now. So one day he marches out of the city and lies down in the forest to sleep for sixty years. When he is found, he is not believed and is taken to a mental asylum. When Fosca finishes his story, he tells that he suffers from nightmares in which the whole world is white and dead, populated only by two living beings: he and the mouse on which he tested the immortality potion. Regine finally understands the enormity of his fate; but she also realizes that she means nothing to him. Fosca still gives her cold comfort, saying that for her it will pass. Then he goes away. The main tension exists between the meaninglessness of daily life, rituals, style from the perspective of an immortal man contrasted by the seeming trivial concerns of a mortal woman: the importance and the value they put on things are at opposite ends of the spectrum. From his perspective everything is essentially the same. From her perspective even the most trivial is unique and carries significance. Reception All Men are Mortal is identified as a "metaphysical novel" by Beauvoir's biographers Claude Francis and Fernande Gontier, who note that while it did not sell well, it was almost immediately translated into German. See also The Wandering Jew, a series of old legends about a Jew who is made immortal in the time of Jesus and cursed to wander the Earth until the second coming. References 1946 French novels Novels by Simone de Beauvoir Novels about actors French novels adapted into films Fiction about immortality Novels set in the 13th century Novels set in the 1930s Novels set in France Novels set in Italy Éditions Gallimard books