Simone de Beauvoir

Written as an act of revenge against the 17 year-old who came between her and Jean-Paul Sartre, She Came to Stay is Simone de Beauvoir’s first novel – a lacerating study of a young, naive couple in love and the usurping woman who comes between them. ‘It is impossible to talk about faithfulness and unfaithfulness where we are oncerned. You and I are simply one. Neither of us can be described without the other.’ It was unthinkable that Pierre and Francoise should ever tire of each other. And yet, both talented and restless, they constantly feel the need for new sensations, new people. Because of this they bring the young, beautiful and irresponsible Xavière into their life who, determined to take Pierre for herself, drives a wedge between them, with unforeseeable, disastrous consequences… Published in 1943, 'She Came to Stay' is Simone de Beauvoir's first novel. Written as an act of revenge against the woman who nearly destroyed her now legendary, unorthodox relationship with the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, it fictionalises the events of 1935, when Sartre became infatuated with seventeen-year old Olga Bost, a pupil and devotee of de Beauvoir's. Passionately eloquent, coolly and devastatingly ironic, 'She Came to Stay' is one of the most extraordinary and powerful pieces of fictional autobiography of the twentieth century, in which de Beauvoir's 'tears for her characters freeze as they drop.'

First published in 1967, this book consists of three short novellas on the theme of women's vulnerability â?? in the first, to the process of ageing, in the second to loneliness, and, in the third, to the growing indifference of a loved one.

"A book that will leave no one indifferent, and no one affected in quite the same way." --New York TimesA superb autobiography by one of the great literary figures of the twentieth centurySimone de Beauvoir's Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter offers an intimate picture of growing up in a bourgeois French family, rebelling as an adolescent against the conventional expectations of her class, and striking out on her own with an intellectual and existential ambition exceedingly rare in a young woman in the 1920s.Beauvoir vividly evokes her friendships, love interests, mentors, and the early days of the most important relationship of her life, with fellow student Jean-Paul Sartre, against the backdrop of a turbulent political time.

A Harper Perennial Modern Classics reissue of this unflinching examination of post-war French intellectual life, and an amazing chronicle of love, philosophy and politics from one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century. An epic romance, a philosophical argument and an honest and searing portrayal of what it means to be a woman, this is Simone de Beauvoir’s most famous and profound novel. De Beauvoir sketches the volatile intellectual and political climate of post-war France with amazing deftness and insight, peopling her story with fictionalisations of the most important figures of the era, such as Camus, Sartre and Nelson Algren. Her novel examines the painful split between public and private life that characterised the female experience in the mid-20th century, and addresses the most difficult questions of gender and choice. It is an astonishing work of intellectual athleticism, yet also a moving romance, a love story of passion and depth. Long out of print, this masterpiece is now reissued as part of the Harper Perennial Modern Classics series so that a whole new generation can discover de Beauvoir’s magic.

Das schillernde Milieu der Pariser Boh?me. Die Schriftstellerin Fran?oise, eine der schönsten Frauengestalten der französischen Literaturszene, und der Schauspieler und Regisseur Pierre, durch Liebe und geistige Interessen eng verbunden, billigen sich die äußerste Freiheit zu. Diese wird plötzlich zur Bedrohung, als eine reizvolle Unbekannte aus der Provinz in ihre Kreise eindringt.

Simone de Beauvoir is best known for her autobiographical writings, as well as her study of the subordination of women in Western society, "Le Deuxi me Sexe" (1949). Written five years before, her powerful play "Les Bouches Inutiles" (1945) shows Beauvoir's dramatisation of issues to which the later texts would return, as well as a significant stage in her creative and philosophical dialogue with Jean-Paul Sartre. The play describes the decision by the male rulers of a besieged city to kill its 'useless mouths', the women, children and elderly, in order to ensure their own survival. Set in the Middle Ages, "Les Bouches Inutiles" presents the attempted resolution of a moral and political dilemma inspired directly by contemporary events: it was written in the last days of World War Two, and performed in the year French women acquired the right to vote. The play explores the effects on society created by the systematic exclusion of its 'silent' members, and deals with issues pertinent to many aspects of the modern world.

An autobiography by one of the great literary figures of the 20th century, where Simone de Beavoir describes her early life, from her birth in Paris in 1908 to her student days at the Sorbonne. It offers a picture of her growing up in a bourgeois French family, rebelling as an adolescent, and striking out on her own with an intellectual ambition.

Das berühmte Standardwerk von Simone de Beauvoir. Die universelle Standortbestimmung der Frau, die aus jahrtausendealter Abhängigkeit von männlicher Vorherrschaft ausgebrochen ist, hat nichts an Gültigkeit eingebüßt. Die Scharfsichtigkeit der grundlegenden Analyse tritt in der Neuübersetzung noch deutlicher hervor.

Here is the ultimate American road book, one with a perspective unlike that of any other. In January 1947 Simone de Beauvoir landed at La Guardia airport and began a four-month journey that took her from one coast of the United States to the other, and back again. Embraced by the Conde Nast set in a swirl of cocktail parties in New York, where she was hailed as the 'prettiest existentialist' by Janet Flanner in "The New Yorker", de Beauvoir traveled west by car, train, and Greyhound, immersing herself in the nation's culture, customs, people, and landscape. The detailed diary she kept of her trip became "America Day by Day", published in France in 1948 and offered here in a completely new translation. It is one of the most intimate, warm, and compulsively readable texts from the great writer's pen. Fascinating passages are devoted to Hollywood, the Grand Canyon, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and San Antonio.We see de Beauvoir gambling in a Reno casino, smoking her first marijuana cigarette in the Plaza Hotel, donning raingear to view Niagara Falls, lecturing at Vassar College, and learning firsthand about the Chicago underworld of morphine addicts and petty thieves with her lover Nelson Algren as her guide. This fresh, faithful translation superbly captures the essence of Simone de Beauvoir's distinctive voice. It demonstrates once again why she is one of the most profound, original, and influential writers and thinkers of the twentieth century. On New York: 'I walk between the steep cliffs at the bottom of a canyon where no sun penetrates: it's permeated by a salt smell. Human history is not inscribed on these carefully calibrated buildings: They are closer to prehistoric caves than to the houses of Paris or Rome'. On Los Angeles: 'I watch the Mexican dances and eat chili con carne, which takes the roof off my mouth, I drink the tequila and I'm utterly dazed with pleasure'.

Mit Schärfe und Ironie schildert Simone de Beauvoir die Gesellschaft der Neureichen, in der Gefühle zu Werbespots werden. Die Menschen dieses Romans ersticken an den Lügen und Heuchelein der spätkapitalistischen Welt, beherrscht von Statussymbolen, von "schönen Bildern".

In 1947, Simone de Beauvoir met Pulitzer Prize winning writer Nelson Algren in Chicago, and it was love at first sight. A passionate affair ensued, spanning twenty years and four continents in an era when a transatlantic flight took twenty-four hours and overseas telephone calls were a luxury. "A Transatlantic Love Affair" collects more than three hundred love letters written in English by de Beauvoir to Algren. Unique among the prolific correspondence de Beauvoir conducted throughout her life, these letters involved someone not at all of her world. De Beauvoir was forced to explain to Algren everything that usually went without saying: her background, her life in Paris, and the political situation in Paris. The result is a cross between a personal memoir and an insider s intellectual history of Left Bank life in postwar Paris, populated with luminaries including Albert Camus, Truman Capote, Colette, Alberto Giacometti, Margaret Mead, and Richard Wright. Written as she was working on "The Mandarins," "America Day by Day," and "The Second Sex," the letters provide a new backdrop for those now classic works. Recently on the bestseller list in France, these frank, tender, and often humorous letters reveal an unusual portrait of the Second Simone. "

A poignant account of her mother's death from cancer.

Set in Paris on the eve of World War II and sizzling with love, anger, and revenge, She Came to Stay explores the changes wrought in the soul of a woman and a city soon to fall. Although Francoise considers her relationship with Pierre an open one, she falls prey to jealousy when the gamine Xaviere catches his attention. The moody young woman from the countryside pries her way between Francoise and Pierre, playing up to each one and deviously pulling them apart, until the only way out of the triangle is destruction. "Behind the sympathy there is curiosity. . . . A writer whose tears for her characters freeze as they drop." Sunday London Times"

"Es ist Mode geworden, ?die Wahrheit? über Beauvoir und Sartre zu schreiben, vor allem über Beauvoir. Und die Wahrheit entspricht, wen wundert?s, nicht der Legende." (EMMA) Die jetzt erschienenen Briefe der Beauvoir räumen endlich mit dem Klischee auf, zu dem Sartre und sie für viele ihrer Verehrer geworden waren.

Dieser erste Band, der die Briefe von 1930 bis 1939 enthält, schildert vor allem die Trennung der beiden während des Krieges. Lektüre, Straßenerlebnisse, Spaziergänge, Kaffeehausgespräche, Liebesbeziehungen, Stimmungen - die Briefe sind ein genauer Führer durch den Pariser Alltag während des Krieges.

Mit unbedingter Aufrichtigkeit erzählt hier eine der "klügsten Frauen des Jahrhunderts" die Geschichte ihrer Jugend bis zur Begegnung mit Jean-Paul Sartre. Dies ist zugleich die Geschichte aus dem Bann der konventionellen Denk- und Lebensformen des Elternhauses und damit ihrer Befreiung zu sich selbst.

Eine ganze Epoche des geistigen Frankreich mit seiner literarischen, philosophischen und politischen Avantgarde wird hier lebendig: Camus, Genet, Prevert, Picasso. Es ist jenes glückliche Decennium, in dem sich die junge Lyzeal-Lehrerin mit Sartre befreundet und zur Schriftstellerin entfaltet.

Dieses Buch erhält den ergreifenden Bericht der Autorin über die letzten zehn Lebensjahre Jean-Paul Sartres und die Gespräche, die sie im Sommer und Herbst 1974 in Rom und Paris mit ihm führte - über sein Leben und Werk, über Herkunft und Einflüsse, Liebe und Freundschaft, Freiheit und Glück, über den Tod.

What do the words elderly, old, and aged really mean? How are they used by society, and how in turn do they define the generation that we are taught to respect and love but instead castigate and avoid? Most importantly, how is our treatment of this generation a reflection of our society's values and priorities? In The Coming of Age, Simone de Beauvoir seeks greater understanding of our perception of elders. With bravery, tenacity, and forceful honesty, she guides us on a study spanning a thousand years and a variety of different nations and cultures to provide a clear and alarming picture of "Society's secret shame"--the separation and distance from our communities that the old must suffer and endure.