Simone Weil was a French philosopher, activist, and mystic who repeatedly sought to enter into the world of the workers and the poor. Though her mystical experiences brought her to the threshold of the Church, she chose not to enter. Yet many consider her one of the most significant religious witnesses of our time. In this short book Stephen Plant explores her life and the paradoxes of her work from a sympathetic, but not uncritical perspective. Her value lies not simply in the content of her thought but, as she would say, in "the amount of illumination thrown upon the things of this world."