'I hate traveling and explorers'

[Deleted]

That was the opening line of Tristes Tropiques by Claude Lévi-Strauss, France's greatest living intellectual, at least until he died on October 31st at the age of 100.

Tristes Tropiques is considered to be his masterwork, and Wikipedia says this about it:

This book was essentially a memoir detailing his time as a French expatriate throughout the 1930s. Lévi-Strauss combined exquisitely beautiful prose, dazzling philosophical meditation, and ethnographic analysis of the Amazonian peoples to produce a masterpiece. The organizers of the Prix Goncourt, for instance, lamented that they were not able to award Lévi-Strauss the prize because Tristes Tropiques was non-fiction.

I am ashamed to say that I have not yet read anything by Claude Lévi-Strauss, but I hope to remedy that soon.

[bixaorellana]

I just went and checked.

I am as ignorant as I thought I was -- haven't read him either.

Perhaps this should be my first choice among his œuvre:
L'Origine des manières de table, 1968, The Origin of Table Manners, 1978

[Deleted]

To give an idea of his importance, since his death was just announced yesterday on the day of his funeral, this morning's newspaper has 13 full pages devoted to him.

[bixaorellana]

His death was only announced yesterday?!

Didn't he die on the 31st?

[hwinpp]

Yes, he did. But the French Academie (what's its exact name again?) only announced it a day later.