Synopses & Reviews
They are one of the world's legendary couples. We can't think of one without thinking of the other. Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre -- those passionate, freethinking existentialist philosopher-writers -- had a committed but notoriously open union that generated no end of controversy. With Tete-a-Tete, distinguished biographer Hazel Rowley offers the first dual portrait of these two colossal figures and their intense, often embattled relationship. Through original interviews and access to new primary sources, Rowley portrays them up close, in their most intimate moments.
We witness Beauvoir and Sartre with their circle, holding court in Paris cafes. We learn the details of their infamous romantic entanglements with the young Olga Kosakiewicz and others; of their efforts to protest the wars in Algeria and Vietnam; and of Beauvoir's tempestuous love affair with Nelson Algren. We follow along on their many travels, involving meetings with dignitaries such as Roosevelt, Khrushchev, and Castro. We listen in on the couple's conversations about Sartre's Nausea, Being and Nothingness, and Words, and Beauvoir's The Second Sex, The Mandarins, and her memoirs. And we hear the anguished discussions that led Sartre to refuse the Nobel Prize.
The impact of their writings on modern thought cannot be overestimated, but Beauvoir and Sartre are remembered just as much for the lives they led. They were brilliant, courageous, profoundly innovative individuals, and Tete-a-Tete shows the passion, energy, daring, humor, and contradictions of their remarkable, unorthodox relationship. Theirs is a great story -- and a great story is precisely what Beauvoir and Sartre most wanted their lives to be.
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“Fascinating . . . A neatly assembled record of people behaving badly in the name of literature, philosophy and amour.” Kirkus Reviews
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“An in-depth, unflinching account . . . TETE-A-TETE provides a valuable cultural history.” Boston Globe
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“TETE-A-TETE has just about everything... Hard as I tried, I could not put it down.” Barbara Ehrenreich
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“Enormously rich and utterly absorbing . . . a short, concise, penetrating look into the famous couple who changed their century.” Brenda Maddox
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“[A] sympathetic but clear-eyed history of Sartre and Beauvoirs lifelong partnership.” New York Times
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“Engrossing... Tells Beauvoir and Sartres repellent, inspiring and unlikely tale more completely and concisely than it has ever been told.” New York Times Book Review
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“Compulsively readable... The surprise page-turner of the season... [A] fascinating study of a passion that transcended convention.” Los Angeles Times Book Review
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“The surprise page-turner of the year.” Newsday
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“[Rowley] draws from vast stores of published and unpublished writings, correspondence and interviews.” Publishers Weekly
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“A fast-moving yet vast saga, spanning the bulk of the 20th century and much of the world.” Seattle Times
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“Exhilirating.” Houston Chronicle
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“An enthralling book.” Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World
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“A lively and fulfilling portrait... [A] wonderfully crafted narrative... Thoroughly researched and well-written.” Library Journal
Synopsis
"Enthralling . . . Here we find an ugly, walleyed existentialist philosopher, the elegantly beautiful author of The Second Sex and the Gallic equivalent of a bevy of young starlets who share the bed of one or the other--or sometimes both. Readers will turn these pages alternately mesmerized and appalled." -- Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World
Passionate, freethinking existentialist philosopher-writers Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre are one of the world's legendary couples. Their committed but notoriously open union generated no end of controversy in their day. Biographer Hazel Rowley offers the first dual portrait of these two colossal figures and their intense, often embattled relationship. Through original interviews and access to new primary sources, Rowley portrays Sartre and Beauvoir up close.
T te- -T te magnificently details the passion, daring, humor, and contradictions of a remarkably unorthodox relationship.
About the Author
Hazel Rowley is the author of two previous books: Christina Stead: A Biography and Richard Wright: The Life And Times. She has been a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow and a Bunting Institute Fellow at Radcliffe College, and has taught at the University of Iowa and at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia. She lives in New York and Paris.