22 expression
Henri finally came to the conclusion that the book owed its success
simply to minsunderstandings. Lambert believed he had meant to exalt
individualism through collective action, and Lechaume, on the other
hand, believed it preached the sacrifice of the individual to
collectivism. Everyone emphasized the book's moral character. And
yet Henri…had thought of a man and of a situation, of a certain
relationship between that man's past life and the crisis through
which he was passing, and of a great many other things which none of
the critics had mentioned. Was it his fault or the readers'? The
public, Henri was forced to conclude, had liked a completely different
book from the one he believed he was offering them.
—Simone de Beauvior
