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Loading... Plenitud de La Vida, La (Pocket Sudamericana) (Spanish Edition) (original 1960; edition 2000)by Simone de Beauvoir
Work InformationThe Prime of Life by Simone de Beauvoir (1960)
1940s (202) Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. After being blown away by the first volume of Simone de Beauvoir's memoirs last September, I knew I had to get to the second installment as soon as possible. Let me just say, it did not disappoint. Covering the years from 1929, when Beauvoir graduated from college and first lived on her own as an adult, through the development of her ideas and interpersonal relationships of the 1930s and into the war years to the liberation of Paris in 1944, La force de l'âge (translated into English as The Prime of Life) is seven hundred pages of densely-packed insight, and a new favorite for me. In both volumes I've read, what sets Beauvoir's autobiographical writing apart is her concern with both the specific details of her own life at any given time (standard memoir fare), and also with drilling down into the ontological state of being a 5-year-old girl, a 23-year-old intellectual, a 32-year-old novelist, and so on. In Mémoires, for example, she describes the gradual process she went through in order to understand the nature of signifier and signified, believing at first that the word "vache" was uniquely and innately bound to the actual cow-object, and only later coming to accept that language and other systems of thought are arbitrarily imposed by humans in order to divide up and make sense of the world around them. Similarly, in La force de l'âge Beauvoir delves into her persistent perception, throughout her 20s, that her own subjectivity and way of being in the world is "true"—the subjectivity of others being a persistent myth which she might believe intellectually but for which she saw little viscerally convincing evidence. She, like so many people in their teens and early twenties, perceives herself at this time as the center of her universe: she is vaguely threatened when she encounters people who cannot be "annexed" to her own circle of friends or way of being, and is frankly incredulous at the idea that any serious catastrophe could ever happen to her. She calls this irrational but stubborn mode of thought her "schizophrenia," and analyzes throughout the book the different ways in which it manifested and developed over the years.
Beauvoir examines the ways in which this "schizophrenic dream" is facilitated by her unacknowledged privilege: the world never seems to deny her the things she really cares about, so she imagines that it is not capable of doing so. Similarly, the deprivations she suffers in the pre-war period (she and Sartre are living paycheck-to-paycheck, without much luxury) are things about which she never cared in the first place, and are more than made up for by the freedoms inherent in the belief that nothing truly bad will happen to her. This ability to live the life that best suits her own nature, in turn engenders a philosophy of extreme individualism in the young Beauvoir: throughout their 20s she and Sartre distrust any political organizations, identifying as liberal intellectuals but limiting themselves to the role of witnesses when, for example, the Front Populaire wins the 1936 elections and institutes the 40-hour work week and paid vacation. Although this complaisance is threatened on a number of occasions and evolves over the years, it isn't until the outbreak of the Second World War that Beauvoir's insularity is truly overturned, and that she accepts on a fundamental level her solidarity with other people, and the uncertainty of all human lives. I know this passage is long, but I find it so beautiful I have to share.
This trajectory from individualism to solidarity is just one thread running through La force de l'âge, and is linked with many more: the need for autonomy and connection; Beauvoir's burgeoning feminism and the ways in which she balances that with her long-term relationship to Jean-Paul Sartre; her fear of and eventual partial acceptance of death, and the ways in which she realizes that catastrophes can happen to her as well as to other people. This is all examined with an intelligence both patient and passionate, and makes Beauvoir's narrative far more memorable than a simple catalog of events. At the same time, there is also plenty of the kind of thing that makes standard biography and autobiography interesting. Beauvoir chronicles the voyages she and Sartre took all over Europe during the 1930s, traveling in Spain in 1931 (still giddy with the rise of the Second Spanish Republic), Italy in the early 1930s (where they saw their first Fascist), Berlin shortly after Hitler's rise to power, Greece in the late 30s, France's Free Zone during the war. She describes her long backpacking trips in France and elsewhere, in which she takes off alone on foot for weeks at a time, armed with her wine-skin and espadrilles. She writes about the couple's non-traditional romantic arrangements, their decision to eschew legal marriage and monogamy and the struggles and benefits that result from that. The second half of the memoir, which deals with the war years, provides a vivid account of the everyday chaos, uncertainty, shifting moods and sudden devastation of life in Paris during the German occupation. There are, of course, pages on Beauvoir's and Sartre's famous friends, among them Albert Camus and Alberto Giacommetti. She describes exhaustively the plays and films she saw from year to year, and her reactions to painting, sculpture, and music. Unsurprisingly, she also writes with insight about the books that she and Sartre read and discussed during those years, going into great detail at times about why the work of novelists like Faulkner and Dos Passos was so important to her, both as a writer and as a person. Beauvoir acknowledges beautifully the way in which the discovery of a book can be a pivotal life event. Of course, she also records her own writing life and that of Sartre, both from an artistic-development standpoint and from a perspective of publishing, critical reception, and political engagement. I look forward to revisiting these passages when I'm more familiar with both of their novels and essays. Even without that familiarity, though, I was impressed with the frankness Beauvoir brings to a discussion of her own work: she is not easy on herself, and in retrospect she finds herself guilty of many serious flaws. At the same time, she does not hesitate to point out the elements which she still, after 20 or more years, finds powerful or effective. She gives the impression of taking herself seriously, but not more seriously than she would any other writer. So too, she examines the ways in which one book lead to the next for her, each one being a reaction to and against its predecessor. I've spent almost a month with La force de l'âge, and although I am ready to be done with this volume for now, I also feel a tiny bit sad to put it on the shelf; I know it will be one I return to many times in the future. I also feel so lucky to be about to visit Paris and Rouen, where Sartre and Beauvoir lived and taught. I hope to pick up more of her work while I'm there! Simone de Beauvoir, 1908 - 1986 Simone de Beauvoir was born January 9, 1908 in Paris, France to a respected bourgeois family. Her father was a lawyer, her mother a housewife, and together they raised two daughters to be intelligent, inquisitive individuals. de Beauvoir attended the elementary school Cours Desir in 1913, then L'Institute Sainte Nary under the tutelage of Robert Garric, followed by the Institute Catholique in Paris, before finally attending the Sorbonne, where she graduated from in 1929. It was there that she met the man who would become her life long friend and companion, John Paul Sartre, who contributed to her philosophy of life. She is perhaps best know for her novel entitled "The Second Sex", which describes the ideal that women are an indescribable "other", something "made, not born", and a declaration of feminine independence. After graduating from the Sorbonne, de Beauvoir went on to teach Latin at Lycee Victor Duruy, philosophy at a school in Marseilles, and a few other teaching positions before coming to teach at the Sorbonne. During the course of her twelve years of teaching, from 1931 to 1943, de Beauvoir developed the basis for her philosophical thought. She used her formal philosophy background to also comment on feminism and existentialism. Her personal philosophy was that freedom of choice is man's utmost gift of value. Acts of goodness make one more free, acts of evil decrease that selfsame freedom. In 1945, de Beauvoir and Sartre founded and edited Le Temps Modernes, a monthly review of philosophical thought and trends. In 1943, with the money she had earned from teaching, de Beauvoir turned her full attention to writing, producing first "L'Envitee", then "Pyrrhus et Cineas" in 1944. In 1948, she wrote perhaps her most famous philosophical work, "The Ethics of Ambiguity". "The Second Sex", regarded by many as the seminal work in the field of feminism, is her most famous work. Other works include "The Coming of Age", which addresses society's condemnation of old age, the award winning novel "The Mandarins", "A Very Easy Death", about the death of her mother and a four part biography. In "The Woman Destroyed", a collection of two long stories and one short novel, de Beauvoir discusses middle age. One of her last novels was in the form of a diary recording; it told of the slow death of her life-long compatriot, Jean Paul Sartre. On April 14, 1986, Simone de Beauvoir, one of the mothers of feminism, passed away in her home in Paris. no reviews | add a review
This is the second volume in Simone de Beauvoir's autobiography. In it she continues the story of her life from the age of 21, through the uneasy rebellious 30s, the war years and finally to the liberation of Paris in 1944. No library descriptions found. |
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'there are many things which I firmly intend to leave in obscurity'.
Why should this be one wonders, is she trying not to cause any harm, or any offence to friends and associates, is she being economical with the truth or does she wish to avoid accusations of scandal-mongering? My own interpretation is that for all the detail and all the soul searching that is evident in this tome of an autobiography there is a big fat "elephant in the room"
There is no doubt that de Beauvoir has an interesting story to tell, the fifteen years covers the flourishing artistic world in France following the emergence from the devastation of the first world war and then the rise of Fascism in neighbouring Germany which led inevitably to the second world war. She spent the majority of the war in Paris under Nazi occupation and brings vividly to life firstly the flight from the invading troops and then the uneasy co-existence with the regime in Paris. A high point of the book is her description of the liberation of Paris, especially the fraught few days when the Germans were evacuating before the eventual arrival of the allied troops.
She was the confidant, lover and friend to Jean-Paul Sartre: she describes their life together, and their life apart because often they found themselves posted to different towns in their teaching profession. Their relationship was very much a meeting of minds, she tells of their joint development as writers and how they helped each other. At times this has the feeling of Boswell's biography of Dr Johnson in that we are told in great detail of the hotels they used and the meals they ate. She in particular had a desire to see and experience all that life could offer and she became a little obsessive in her holidays and hiking tours, sometimes dragging an uncomplaining Sartre along with her. They were frequently low on money relying on their teachers pay and she takes pride in telling how they were happy to 'rough it' on their travels.
De Beauvoir reflects long and hard on her own writing career and her thoughts on the 'big questions'. She reveals early on that she sees two main tendencies in herself, a zest for life and an urge towards literary achievement.
She fights to live more in the moment and to banish her fears, she wishes to be able to take things in her stride as Sartre seems more able to do. She reflects on the meaning of her life and her fears of death. She says she does not see herself as a philosopher, but it is clear that she helps Sartre with his theories and his writing. On her own account she tells why she writes and what she is trying to achieve in her novel writing. She goes into some detail, giving synopsis and critique of her own writing projects. This does provide some insight into her work although her examination of her unpublished work can get a little tedious.
The artistic milieu that was part of Parisian life and which swirled around the intellectual couple especially after Sartre and then de Beauvoir became published authors is lovingly described. We are told of the books they admired, the films they saw, the plays in which they became involved and of course the people with whom they were associated: writers Malraux, Camus, Jean Genet, artists Giacometti and Picasso and the entourage surrounding Charles Dullin: theatre manager and director. The cafes and hotels where they worked, the restaurants they frequented, the streets of Paris and the walks, the hiking and the holidays all around the country all serve as detailed background to the lives of this special couple.
Yes, it is the special couple aspect of this autobiography that begins to raise concerns with this reader. Certainly de Beauvoir's "urge towards literary achievement" is the prime mover in her life, so much so that I get the feeling that if someone desperately needed help; perhaps choking to death then Simone, would be minded to finish the book she was reading first. She and Sartre are totally wrapped up in their own lives. They are aware of the rise of fascism in Germany, but are in almost total denial to the build up to war, they see the persecution of their Jewish friends and keep their heads below the parapet. Friends and colleagues get involved in political action, but Simone and Sartre go on holiday. Their work as writers always comes first. However there is another aspect to this special couple that de Beauvoir needs to leave in obscurity and the elephant in the room is their sexual predilections. Early in their relationship Sartre and de Beauvoir agree to have an open relationship where they are free to indulge in love affairs. Simone reveals that she has trouble controlling her sexual urges and is obviously bisexual and goes on to say she does not want to involve her readers in sexual tittle tattle and so we have to read between the lines that when she says that she is meeting someone or staying with someone she is probably sleeping with them and likewise with Sartre. However she begins to refer to a string of pupils that become special friends and who also become friendly with Sartre. Students some as young as sixteen end up staying with her and she refers to them as a trio or as family. She describes how difficult some of these young students can be and the tensions that results from what becomes obvious to me is a menage-a-trois. Perhaps worse than that is the thought that de Beauvoir may have been procuring students for Sartre. She was dismissed from her teaching post for an inappropriate relationship with one of her students.
Autobiographies often leave authors open to judgement from their readers, sometimes from what they choose not to say and it is always tempting to read between the lines. De Beauvoir's Prime of Life was first published in France in 1960 when many of the people to whom she refers were still alive and obviously she had to be careful what she said. I detect nothing malicious or gossipy in her revelations and she rarely has anything bad to say about the people in her circle. I think she was being as honest as she could possibly be, unfortunately this honesty lays bare the selfish and at times patronising approach to life taken by this special couple who may also have been a predatory couple. As readers we do not always have to like or approve of the actions of the subjects of biographies, but what we do want is some additional knowledge of the people involved and a realistic portrayal of the context surrounding the world in which they lived. We certainly get this from de Beauvoir's autobiography, but I think that perhaps she has revealed a little too much and the detail can be a little overwhelming even tedious and so 4 stars. ( )