Man’s Fate

novel by Malraux

Also known as: “La Condition humaine”

Written by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

June 30, 2026

Quick Summary

Man's Fate (La Condition humaine) is a novel by André Malraux published in 1933. It depicts the communist uprising in Shanghai in 1927, focusing on the struggles and betrayals faced by Chinese communist conspirators and European adventurers. The novel explores themes of political idealism, revolutionary struggle, and the human condition, suggesting that brotherhood forged through shared action can offer an antidote to existential solitude. The work was awarded the Prix Goncourt and established Malraux's reputation as a significant novelist.12

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

2 Britannica Sources

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.

André Malraux
Life
…in 1930, and the masterpiece La Condition humaine in 1933 (awarded the Prix Goncourt) established his reputation as a leading French novelist and a charismatic, politically committed intellectual. Though he captivated Paris with his exceptional intelligence, lyrical prose, astonishing memory, and breadth of knowledge, it was not generally appreciated that…
Read More
…in 1930, and the masterpiece La Condition humaine in 1933 (awarded the Prix Goncourt) established his reputation as a leading French novelist and a charismatic, politically committed intellectual. Though he captivated Paris with his exceptional intelligence, lyrical prose, astonishing memory, and breadth of knowledge, it was not generally appreciated that…
Read More

French literature
Malraux, Gide, and others
La Condition humaine (1933; Man’s Fate) depicts the communist uprising in Shanghai in 1927, while L’Espoir (1937; Man’s Hope) is a lyrical and epic account of the Spanish Civil War, evoking the passionate contemporary debates among revolutionary factions about the best way to fight for the revolutionary ideal.
Read More
La Condition humaine (1933; Man’s Fate) depicts the communist uprising in Shanghai in 1927, while L’Espoir (1937; Man’s Hope) is a lyrical and epic account of the Spanish Civil War, evoking the passionate contemporary debates among revolutionary factions about the best way to fight for the revolutionary ideal.
Read More

Edgar du Perron
He translated into Dutch Malraux’s La Condition humaine, which had been dedicated to him. His collected essays, De smalle mens (1934), deal with the precarious position of the individual in the face of the collective attitudes of left and right. His poems, collected in Parlando (1941), are characterized by everyday…
Read More
He translated into Dutch Malraux’s La Condition humaine, which had been dedicated to him. His collected essays, De smalle mens (1934), deal with the precarious position of the individual in the face of the collective attitudes of left and right. His poems, collected in Parlando (1941), are characterized by everyday…
Read More