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Interviews | November 3, 2009

Sheila A.: IMG On Storytelling: The Powells.com Interview with Donald Miller

2 comments By Sheila A.

donaldmillerDonald Miller is a Christian writer, but the question that Miller asks with his latest memoir, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, is applicable to... Continue »
  1. $13.99 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life

    Donald Miller

The Second Sex

by Simone De Beauvoir

The Second Sex Cover

ISBN13: 9780679724513
ISBN10: 0679724516
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

This triumphant and genuinely revolutionary book began as an exceptional woman's attempt to find out who and what she was. It ended up shocking, infuriating, and galvanizing millions of readers and dramatically revising the way women talk and think about themselves. Drawing on extensive interviews with women of every age and station of life, masterfully synthesizing research about women's bodies and psyches as well as their historic and economic roles, The Second Sex is an encyclopedic and brilliantly argued document of inequality and enforced "otherness." Forty years later, it retains all of its vitality and passion, while confirming Simone de Beauvoir's stature as one of the most significant thinkers of the twentieth century.

Review:

"To take on this glorious and fantastic book is not like reading at all — from the first sentence to the last, one has the sensation of playing some dreadfully exciting...game....What is so unbearably whirling is that the author too goes through this mad effort to include nearly every woman and attitude that has ever existed." Elizabeth Hardwick

Review:

"It is a truly magnificent book, even if sometimes irritating to a mere male." The New York Times Book Review

Synopsis:

The classic manifesto of the liberated woman, this book explores every facet of a woman's life.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
gkenyon, December 1, 2008 (view all comments by gkenyon)
Wrong, and wrong.
This is not the best translation available from the French of Le deuxième sexe, it's the only one. The publisher (Alfred A. Knopf) who owns the translation rights is blocking the release of a new complete translation, as has been demanded by Beauvoir and by her literary executor.
It was done by a zoologist with no background in feminism or in philosophy. About 200 pages of content are cut, and what was cut shows a sexist bias toward the content in the original French. Philosophical concepts are mangled by the translator and it is in fact impossible for the English-speaking reader to fully understand the thesis put forth by Beauvoir without consulting a version in another language or a work that outlines some of the discrepancies in the Knopf version.

As much as this is a fantastic and essential book, it will be best to wait for the release of a new English translation (which is rumoured to be forthcoming).

refer, if you like, to this new york times article:
(remove the spaces from the URL)
http:// query.nytimes.com/ gst/fullpage.html?res= 9402EED6163F F931A1575BC0A962 9C8B63&page wanted=all
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venusinfauxfurz, April 23, 2007 (view all comments by venusinfauxfurz)
The best English translation available, although there are a few rough patches and is actually an abriged version of the original French text. Translation issues aside, it's a good edition of a very important book.
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Currer1013, December 29, 2006 (view all comments by Currer1013)
Perhaps the best translation of de Beauvoir's work, it is also the most accessible. This is one of those books that answered questions that had plagued me for years, such as, "why is feminism failing as a movement?" and "why is a global feminism so difficult"? Give a copy to every budding feminist, stringent anti-feminist, and confused or curious person on your list.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780679724513
Author:
Beauvoir, Simone De
Publisher:
Vintage Books USA
Translator:
Borde, Constance
Other:
de Beauvoir, Simone
Author:
de Beauvoir, Simone
Location:
New York
Subject:
Women
Subject:
Women's Studies
Subject:
Sociology - General
Subject:
Feminism & Feminist Theory
Subject:
Women's Studies - General
Copyright:
1989
Edition Description:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Publication Date:
December 1989
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
800
Dimensions:
8.18x5.26x1.42 in. 1.31 lbs.
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