Simone de Beauvoir: A Biography

Abstract

Simone de Beauvoir was one of most influential figures of twentieth century, as a philosopher, feminist, novelist and author of landmark work The Second Sex. Yet as Deirdre Bair shows in this definitive biography, de Beauvoir's remarkable life was dominated at every stage by another intellectual giant - Jean-Paul Sartre. Born into French Catholic aristocracy, de Beauvoir became the most notorious woman in France. Her scandalously unconventional relationship with Sartre and her dedication to his theories and his work is one of most intriguing and contradictory aspects of her life. The two became, in de Beauvoir's own words, a couple; a unity that took priority over even her intensely passionate affair with American writer Nelson Algren. Indeed, Sartre is, as Deirdre Bair says, the secret sharer in this biography. The author spent almost a decade researching and writing Simone de Beauvoir, with unqualified co-operation of her subject, and book contains a tremendous amount of new material - much of it personal and intimate - that is central to a true understanding of de Beauvoir's decisions, choices, and work. Captured with same narrative flair, incisive commentary and sensitive detail that won her an award for Samuel Beckett, Deirdre Bair's magnificant portrait of a dramatic and important life will be one of major literary events of 1990.

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