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Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986)

Author of The Second Sex [abridged English translation by H. M. Parshley]

160+ Works 24,436 Members 231 Reviews 104 Favorited

About the Author

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 show more 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. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Series

Works by Simone de Beauvoir

The Second Sex (1953) 2,368 copies
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (1958) 2,072 copies
The Mandarins (1956) 1,726 copies
The Woman Destroyed (1967) 1,504 copies
The Ethics Of Ambiguity (1948) 1,195 copies
She Came to Stay (1943) 1,088 copies
A Very Easy Death (1964) 1,046 copies
The Prime of Life (1960) 894 copies
The Blood of Others (1948) 771 copies
All Men Are Mortal (1946) 753 copies
Les Belles Images (1966) 596 copies
The Coming of Age (1960) 480 copies
Adieux: a Farewell to Sartre (1981) 444 copies
Force of Circumstance (1963) 405 copies
All Said and Done (1972) 381 copies
The Inseparables (2019) 275 copies
America Day by Day (1960) 266 copies
Letters to Sartre (1991) 224 copies
La Force des choses, tome 1 (1963) 122 copies
Les Mandarins : Tome 1 (1954) 122 copies
Misverstand in Moskou (2013) 109 copies
Les Mandarins : Tome 2 (1954) 108 copies
After The second sex : conversations with Simone De Beauvoir (1983) — some editions; Author — 107 copies
Must We Burn de Sade? (1953) 94 copies
The Independent Woman (2008) 68 copies
Toinen sukupuoli (1980) 41 copies
Pariisi 1939-44 (1960) 28 copies
Wij vrouwen (1981) 23 copies
Pyrrhus et Cinéas (1986) 19 copies
Who Shall Die? (1945) 18 copies
Autoritratto a settant'anni (1975) — interviewer — 17 copies
La force de l'âge T. 1 (2001) 16 copies
Marcelle (2014) 11 copies
Der Wille zum Glück (1980) 5 copies
Cartas a Sartre (1996) 4 copies
La donna e la creatività (2001) 3 copies
Memoires: volumes 1 et 2 (2018) 3 copies
Mémoires - Tome 1 (2018) 3 copies
Privilèges (1955) 3 copies
Paroles de femmes (1999) 3 copies
Yıkılmış Kadın (2020) 2 copies
La vieillesse. Tome 2 (1970) — Author — 2 copies
Monoloog 1 copy
Kadın 1 copy
The Vagabond 1 copy
MIKESHA 1 copy
Per Djamila Boupacha (2023) 1 copy
Olgunluk Cagi 2 (1991) 1 copy
Olgunluk çağı (1991) 1 copy
KONUK KIZ 1 copy
Veda Töreni (2019) 1 copy

Associated Works

History (1974) — Foreword, some editions — 1,371 copies
The 120 Days of Sodom and Other Writings (1785) — Introduction, some editions — 1,203 copies
Dirty Hands (1948) — Contributor, some editions — 802 copies
Treblinka (1966) — Foreword, some editions — 625 copies
The Assassin's Cloak: An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists (2000) — Contributor, some editions — 550 copies
The Bastard (1964) — Foreword, some editions — 495 copies
The Norton Book of Women's Lives (1993) — Contributor — 409 copies
Cries of the Spirit: A Celebration of Women's Spirituality (2000) — Contributor — 370 copies
The Essential Feminist Reader (2007) — Contributor — 316 copies
Love Letters (1996) — Contributor — 180 copies
The Phenomenology Reader (2002) — Contributor — 93 copies
The Penguin Book of Erotic Stories by Women (1995) — Contributor — 80 copies
The Grim Reader: Writings on Death, Dying, and Living On (1997) — Contributor — 60 copies
The Penguin Book of Twentieth-Century Protest (1998) — Contributor — 31 copies
Philosophy now : an introductory reader (1972) — Contributor — 24 copies
Philosophical Issues: A Contemporary Introduction (1972) — Contributor — 17 copies
The bird has no wings : letters of Peter Schwiefert (1974) — Foreword, some editions — 16 copies
Die Reise nach Sofia: Roman (1986) — Vorwort, some editions — 16 copies
Bluebeard and Other Fairy Tales (1964) — Introduction — 13 copies
Simone de Beauvoir. Rebellin und Wegbereiterin. (1999) — Associated Name — 7 copies
Simone de Beauvoir (2013) — Contributor — 4 copies
À cause d'elles (1985) — Preface — 3 copies
Les Temps Modernes (1981) — Editor — 2 copies
Les temps Modernes N° 407 - Les redresseurs de morts. (1980) — Contributor — 2 copies
LES TEMPS MODERNES N 448, NOV. 1983 (1983) — Editor — 1 copy

Tagged

20th century (318) anthology (203) autobiography (549) Beauvoir (211) biography (510) classics (92) diary (152) erotica (83) existentialism (537) feminism (1,475) feminist theory (103) fiction (953) France (584) French (668) French literature (815) gender (167) gender studies (124) history (329) Holocaust (261) letters (103) literature (394) memoir (376) non-fiction (1,031) novel (257) Paris (88) philosophy (1,214) poetry (98) politics (115) read (105) Roman (245) sexuality (89) short stories (93) Simone de Beauvoir (237) sociology (195) to-read (1,367) translation (122) unread (160) women (433) women's studies (296) WWII (186)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Beauvoir, Simone de
Legal name
Beauvoir, Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de
Other names
Castor, Le (pseudonym)
Birthdate
1908-01-09
Date of death
1986-04-14
Burial location
Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris, Île-de-France, France
Gender
female
Nationality
France
Country (for map)
France
Birthplace
Paris, France
Place of death
Paris, France
Places of residence
Paris, France
Education
Institut Catholique (Mathematics)
Institut Sainte-Marie (Literature/Languages)
The Sorbonne, Paris, France (Philosophy)
Occupations
philosopher
teacher
writer
journalist
playwright
political activist (show all 7)
feminist
Relationships
Sartre, Jean-Paul (partner)
Algren, Nelson (lover)
Organizations
Les Temps Modernes
Awards and honors
Austrian State Prize for European Literature (1978)
Jerusalem Prize (1975)
Prix Goncourt (1954)
Short biography
Simone de Beauvoir was born in Paris to a devoutly Catholic bourgeois family. She was educated at a convent boarding school and originally wanted to become a nun; however, she lost her faith at age 14. After passing her baccalaureate exams, she studied mathematics at the Institut Catholique and literature and languages at the Institut Sainte-Marie, before entering the Sorbonne to study philosophy. She wrote her thesis on Leibniz. She sat in on courses at the École Normale Supérieure to prepare for the agrégation (postgrad exam) in philosophy, and it was there that she met Jean-Paul Sartre. De Beauvoir became a teacher, intellectual, and well-known writer, beginning with her first novel, She Came to Stay (1943). She also produced philosophical essays, plays, memoirs, travel diaries, and newspaper articles, and served as an editor of the influential literary review Les Temps modernes. She won the Prix Goncourt for her 1954 novel The Mandarins. De Beauvoir became a key figure in the struggle for women's rights in France and worldwide, sparked by her feminist work The Second Sex (1949). With her lifelong companion Sartre, she was a central player in the important philosophical debates of the 20th century.

Members

Discussions

The Second Sex — 2016 group read in Feminist Theory (November 2017)
Second Sex--thoughts? in Feminist Theory (March 2016)
de Beauvoir : The Second Sex in Author Theme Reads (October 2013)
de Beauvoir class and paper in Philosophy and Theory (March 2008)

Reviews

they really don't make adults like this anymore
 
Flagged
avv999 | 15 other reviews | Feb 16, 2024 |
Three short extracts from The Second Sex - it's an addictive gateway read for moving on to harder de Beauvoir.
 
Flagged
breathslow | Jan 27, 2024 |
De Beauvoir is almost completely wrong, but this book is amazing. It is rich and very readable.
 
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puabi | 17 other reviews | Nov 22, 2023 |
"Quando éramos jovens e, ao final de uma discussão apaixonada, um de nós triunfava ostensivamente, dizia ao outro: 'Você está enclausurado!' Você está enclausurado; não sairá daí e eu não me juntarei a você: mesmo que me enterrem ao seu lado, de suas cinzas para meus restos não haverá nenhuma passagem.
Este você que emprego é um engodo, um artifício retórico. Ninguém me ouve; não falo com ninguém. Na realidade, dirijo-me aos amigos de Sartre: àqueles que desejam conhecer melhor seus últimos anos. Relatei-os tal como os vivi."A Editora Nova Fronteira, conhecida e reconhecida por ser a casa dos grandes clássicos da literatura, comemora 50 anos. É muita história já contada e muita ainda por contar. Para festejar essa data tão importante, lançamos a Coleção 50 Anos, com vinte títulos imperdíveis e obrigatórios em qualquer estante.Em A cerimônia do adeus, Simone de Beauvoir faz um relato pungente sobre os dez últimos anos de vida de Sartre, baseado no diário pessoal da autora e em vários testemunhos que recolheu. Simone fala sobre os problemas de saúde do companheiro e de seus últimos trabalhos, num tom ao mesmo tempo distante e comovente.Jean-Paul Sartre foi um dos maiores pensadores do século XX. Poucos intelectuais na história ousaram tanto e deixaram obra tão eclética. Ainda jovem, conheceu Simone de Beauvoir na Escola Normal Superior, em Paris, e logo a identificação foi total. Desde então, até a morte do escritor, em 1980, Simone foi sua companheira inseparável.O livro traz também um rico material de entrevistas realizadas por Simone com Sartre em diferentes épocas. Uma obra arrebatadora, verdadeira homenagem a um homem fascinante feita por uma das escritoras mais brilhantes de seu tempo.… (more)
 
Flagged
Camargos_livros | 5 other reviews | Aug 30, 2023 |

Lists

scav (1)
1950s (2)
1940s (3)
My TBR (1)

Awards

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Statistics

Works
160
Also by
31
Members
24,436
Popularity
#859
Rating
3.9
Reviews
231
ISBNs
1,003
Languages
31
Favorited
104

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