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La condition humaine is a great existentialist novel written by the extremely flamboyant Andre Malraux who did and saw a great deal in his adventuresome life. In 1923, he was caught with art treasures stolen from Angkor Wat in Cambodia. After eight months in prison, he moved on to China where he worked with the Kuomintang. Later he would organize and command an air division on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. He served as a soldier in the French Army that was defeated by the Germans and later became a leader of the Resistance. From 1945 on, he would be a firm Gaullist eventually becoming France's minister of culture. While doing all this he wrote prolifically establishing himself as a major writer and as one of the leading art critics of his age.

The novel La condition humaine is almost but not quite as remarkable as the life of its extraordinary author. It is set in Shanghai and deals with the liquidation of the Communists in the city in April 1927. Malraux presents the reader with a fascinating set of characters all of whom are modelled on real communist militants including Zhou en Lai (Kyoshi) that Malraux met during his time in the Orient. The reader is instantly attracted to these doomed individuals who all must attempt to die a dignified existentist death of which the saddest and most glorious is that of Kyoshi (Zhou en Lai).

(In real life of course Zhou en Lai survived and lived to reunite with Malraux in 1965 when Malraux was visiting China on a mission for de Gaulle.)

For the last 60 years, French lit undergraduates had found themselves reading this classic at some point usually quite early in their academic careers. Other readers will find La condition humaine very worthwhile for its great historical authenticity and magnificent Aristotelian pathos.