{"product_id":"9781587319105","title":"We Have Been Friends Together \u0026 Adventures in Grace: Memoirs","description":"\u003cp\u003eRaïssa Maritain (1883-1960), best known as the wife of the famous French philosopher\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJacques Maritain, was a remarkable person in her own right. A poet, philosopher,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etranslator, and mystic, she was at the epicenter of French intellectual life in the first half\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eof the twentieth century. Her autobiography, \u003ci\u003eWe Have Been Friends Together\u003c\/i\u003e, together with\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe second part, \u003ci\u003eAdventures in Grace\u003c\/i\u003e, were originally published in two volumes in 1941\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eand 1944. Both books are combined here and are now being re-issued for the first time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShe chronicles not only her and her husband’s lives but also those of their friends—an\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eimpressive circle of important French intellectuals, writers, artists, professors, and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003einfluential priests. In luminous prose Raïssa recounts her childhood in Russia, her youth\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ein Paris, and her momentous meeting with Jacques, followed by their conversion to\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCatholicism in 1906. She gives a vivid, personal account of the Thomistic Revival they\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ehelped to lead and describes the conversions of key figures in the French Catholic\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRenaissance—many of whom were the Maritains’ close friends. However, the underlying\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003esubjects of her autobiography are God’s goodness, the mysterious operation of grace in\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe soul, and the way that Raïssa and others were transformed by their encounter with\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe Divine.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e      We Have Been Friends Together \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eAdventures in Grace \u003c\/i\u003eare spiritual autobiographies\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewritten by a mystic with a difference. Raïssa was totally God-focused, but, unlike most\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003emystics, she was not a religious by vocation. She attended the Sorbonne, married, and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eassociated with the intellectual lights of Paris, New York, and Rome. She wrote a book\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efor children, and published poetry, works on prayer, translations, and studies of modern\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eauthors. Raïssa also played a key role in the conversion of many and knew, often\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eintimately, intellectuals like Ernest Psichari and Charles Péguy, the playwright Cocteau,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe authors Mauriac, Claudel, and Bloy, and a number of painters, including Georges\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRouault. Readers interested in spiritual biography, in mystics, in modern women\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eauthors, in the psychology of conversion, in twentieth-century French intellectual life,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eand in the Thomistic revival will find this book fascinating. Raïssa’s autobiography will\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ealso hold a special place in the heart of all those who believe, as did her godfather Léon\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBloy, “There is only one misery . . . not to be saints.”   \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"St. Augustine's Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47035116060912,"sku":"9781587319105","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781587319105_p0.jpg?v=1763806425","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781587319105","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}