Synopses & Reviews
Simone de Beauvoir was a member of the intellectual elite of philosopher-writers whose feminist ideas revolutionised conventional thinking. She is known primarily for her monumental work: The Second Sex, (1949) a scholarly and passionate seminal work, which became a classic of feminist literature but also for her partnership with the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, France's most celebrated and unconventional intellectual couplings.
Synopsis
Born in 1908, Simone de Beauvoir was a brilliant scholar and novelist, leading member of the existentialist movement and a committed socialist and feminist. Raised in a stiflingly respectable environment, as a young woman she totally rejected her parents' values and embarked on her literary career. With Jean-Paul Sartre she formed a unique relationship, which she described as 'The one undoubted success in my life'. Later in life she was committed to achieving radical social and political change, but it was writing that gave meaning to her life; above everything, she valued her own intellectual audience.
Synopsis
Accessible and affordable illustrated biography about a famous feminist
About the Author
Lisa Appignanesi is a novelist, writer and broadcaster. She has written a portrait of Simone de Beauvoir and Cabaret (2004, Yale University Press) and a book on James, Proust and Musil. She is the co-author of Freud's Women with John Forrester (Penguin).
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Dutiful Daughter
A Necessary Love
Literature as Salvation
The Ethics of Existentialism
Being a Woman
The Committed Intellectual
The Exemplary Life
A Radical Old Age
Notes
Chronology
List of Works
Further Readting
Picture Sources
Index