New Releases by Simone De Beauvoir

A captivating novella about long-term relationships, getting older and how to live a good life, by the great Simone de Beauvoir. Nicole and André, a retired French couple, take a summer holiday to Russia. It is the 1960s and Russia is a beautiful, complicated place. Their guide is Macha, André''s daughter from a previous relationship - a woman they both love. Adventure, inspiration, good food and good vodka are promised. Once thrilled by their romance, Nicole and André have now become too used to each other. Both harbour a growing feeling of not being fully understood - of being alone. Father and daughter engage in the grand debates of East-West relations, nationalism and socialism. But getting older, long-term relationships and how to enjoy life turn out to be the more pressing issues.

Finalist for the French-American Florence Gould Translation Prize A novel by the iconic Simone de Beauvoir of an intense and vivid girlhood friendship that, unpublished in her lifetime, displays “Beauvoir''s genius as a fiction writer”(Wall Street Journal) From the moment Sylvie and Andrée meet in their Parisian day school, they see in each other an accomplice with whom to confront the mysteries of girlhood. For the next ten years, the two are the closest of friends and confidantes as they explore life in a post-World War One France, and as Andrée becomes increasingly reckless and rebellious, edging closer to peril. Sylvie, insightful and observant, sees a France of clashing ideals and religious hypocrisy—and at an early age is determined to form her own opinions. Andrée, a tempestuous dreamer, is inclined to melodrama and romance. Despite their different natures they rely on each other to safeguard their secrets while entering adulthood in a world that did not pay much attention to the wills and desires of young women. Deemed too intimate to publish during Simone de Beauvoir’s life, Inseparable offers fresh insight into the groundbreaking feminist’s own coming-of-age; her transformative, tragic friendship with her childhood friend Zaza Lacoin; and how her youthful relationships shaped her philosophy. Sandra Smith’s vibrant translation of the novel will be long cherished by de Beauvoir devotees and first-time readers alike.

The lost novel from the author of The Second Sex When Andrée joins her school, Sylvie is immediately fascinated. Andrée is small for her age, but walks with the confidence of an adult. The girls become close. They talk for hours about equality, justice, war and religion; they lose respect for their teachers; they build a world of their own. But as the girls grow into young women, the pressures of society mount, threatening everything. This novel was never published in Simone de Beauvoir''s lifetime. It tells the story of the real-life friendship that shaped one of the most important thinkers and feminists of the twentieth century. ''Slim, elegant, achingly tragic and unaffectedly lovely in its evocation of the closeness between girls - and the pressures that sunder them'' Spectator VINTAGE FRENCH CLASSICS - five masterpieces of French fiction in gorgeous new gift editions. TRANSLATED BY LAUREN ELKIN - INTRODUCED BY DEBORAH LEVY

''It is possible for man to snatch the world from the darkness of absurdity'' How should we think and act in the world? These writings on the human condition by one of the twentieth century''s great philosophers explore the absurdity of our notions of good and evil, and show instead how we make our own destiny simply by being. One of twenty new books in the bestselling Penguin Great Ideas series. This new selection showcases a diverse list of thinkers who have helped shape our world today, from anarchists to stoics, feminists to prophets, satirists to Zen Buddhists.

From the groundbreaking author of The Second Sex comes a radical argument for ethical responsibility and freedom. In this classic introduction to existentialist thought, French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir’s The Ethics of Ambiguity simultaneously pays homage to and grapples with her French contemporaries, philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, by arguing that the freedoms in existentialism carry with them certain ethical responsibilities. De Beauvoir outlines a series of “ways of being” (the adventurer, the passionate person, the lover, the artist, and the intellectual), each of which overcomes the former’s deficiencies, and therefore can live up to the responsibilities of freedom. Ultimately, de Beauvoir argues that in order to achieve true freedom, one must battle against the choices and activities of those who suppress it. The Ethics of Ambiguity is the book that launched Simone de Beauvoir’s feminist and existential philosophy. It remains a concise yet thorough examination of existence and what it means to be human.

This collection of classic titles by Beauvoir her most well know writings, The Second Sex and The Ethics Of Ambiguity as well as a biography of her life and a rare interview on her book The Second Sex. French writer and feminist, and Existentialist. She is known primarily for her treatise The Second Sex (1949), a scholarly and passionate plea for the abolition of what she called the myth of the "eternal feminine." It became a classic of feminist literature during the 1960s. Her novels expounded the major Existential themes, demonstrating her conception of the writer''s commitment to the times. She Came To Stay (1943) treats the difficult problem of the relationship of a conscience to "the other." Of her other works of fiction, perhaps the best known is The Mandarins (1954), a chronicle of the attempts of post-World War II intellectuals to leave their "mandarin" (educated elite) status and engage in political activism. She also wrote four books of philosophy, including The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947). Several volumes of her work are devoted to autobiography which constitute a telling portrait of French intellectual life from the 1930s to the 1970s. In addition to treating feminist issues, de Beauvoir was concerned with the issue of aging, which she addressed in A Very Easy Death (1964), on her mother''s death in a hospital. In 1981 she wrote A Farewell to Sartre, a painful account of Sartre''s last years. Simone de Beauvoir revealed herself as a woman of formidable courage and integrity, whose life supported her thesis: the basic options of an individual must be made on the premises of an equal vocation for man and woman founded on a common structure of their being, independent of their sexuality. Table of Contents: The Second Sex, On the publication of The Second Sex, interview The Ethics of Ambiguity, Biography

Includes the full French text, accompanied by French-English vocabulary. Notes and a detailed introduction in English put the work in its social and historical context.

“A book that will leave no one indifferent, and no one affected in quite the same way.” —New York Times A superb autobiography by one of the great literary figures of the twentieth century Simone 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.

Vintage Feminism: classic feminist texts in short form WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY NATALIE HAYNES When this book was first published in 1949 it was to outrage and scandal. Never before had the case for female liberty been so forcefully and successfully argued. De Beauvoir’s belief that ‘One is not born, but rather becomes, woman’ switched on light bulbs in the heads of a generation of women and began a fight for greater equality and economic independence. These pages contain the key passages of the book that changed perceptions of women forever. TRANSLATED BY CONSTANCE BORDE AND SHEILA MALOVANY-CHEVALLIER ANNOTATED AND INTRODUCED BY MARTINE REID

By turns surprising and revelatory, this sixth volume in the Beauvoir Series presents newly discovered writings and lectures while providing new translations and contexts for Simone de Beauvoir''s more familiar writings. Spanning Beauvoir''s career from the 1940s through 1986, the pieces explain the paradoxes in her political and feminist stances, including her famous 1972 announcement of a "conversion to feminism" after decades of activism on behalf of women. Feminist Writings documents and contextualizes Beauvoir''s thinking, writing, public statements, and activities in the services of causes like French divorce law reform and the rights of women in the Iranian Revolution. In addition, the volume provides new insights into Beauvoir''s complex thinking and illuminates her historic role in linking the movements for sexual freedom, sexual equality, homosexual rights, and women''s rights in France.

One of the most influential thinkers of her generation draws us into the lives of three women, all past their first youth, all facing unexpected crises in these three “immensely intelligent stories about the decay of passion” (The Sunday Herald Times). Suffused with de Beauvoir’s remarkable insights into women, The Woman Destroyed gives us a legendary writer at her best. Includes "The Age of Discretion," "The Monologue," and "The Woman Destroyed." "Witty, immensely adroit...These three women are believable individuals presented with a wry mixture of sympathy and exasperation." —The Atlantic

Political Writings offers an abundance of newly translated essays by Simone de Beauvoir that demonstrate a heretofore unknown side of her political philosophy. The writings in this volume range from Beauvoir''s surprising 1952 defense of the misogynistic eighteenth-century pornographer, the Marquis de Sade, to a co-written 1974 documentary film, transcribed here for the first time, which draws on Beauvoir''s analysis of how socioeconomic privilege shapes the biological reality of aging. The volume traces nearly three decades of Beauvoir''s leftist political engagement, from exposés of conditions in fascist Spain and Portugal in 1945 and hard-hitting attacks on right-wing French intellectuals in the 1950s, to the 1962 defense of an Algerian freedom fighter, Djamila Boupacha, and a 1975 article arguing for what is now called the "two-state solution" in Israel. Together these texts prefigure Beauvoir''s later feminist activism and provide a new interpretive context for reading her multi-volume autobiography, while also shedding new light on French intellectual history during the turbulent era of decolonization.

In these letters, de Beauvoir tells Sartre everything, tracing the extraordinary complications of their triangular love life; they reveal her not only as manipulative and dependent, but also as vulnerable, passionate, jealous, and...

"The Useless Mouths" and Other Literary Writings brings to English-language readers literary writings--several previously unknown--by Simone de Beauvoir. Highlights of the volume include a new translation of the 1945 play The Useless Mouths, the unpublished 1965 short novel "Misunderstanding in Moscow," the fragmentary "Notes for a Novel," and an eagerly awaited translation of Beauvoir''s contribution to a 1965 debate among Jean-Paul Sartre and other French writers and intellectuals, "What Can Literature Do?" The collection includes critical introductions by Meryl Altman, Elizabeth Fallaize, Alison S. Fell, Sarah Gendron, Dennis A. Gilbert, Laura Hengehold, Eleanore Holveck, Terry Keefe, J. Debbie Mann, Frederick M. Morrison, Catherine Naji, Justine Sarrot, Liz Stanley, Ursula Tidd, and Veronique Zaytzeff.

Written from September 1939 to January 1941, Simone de Beauvoir’s Wartime Diary gives English readers unabridged access to one of the scandalous texts that threaten to overturn traditional views of Beauvoir’s life and work. Beauvoir’s account of her clandestine affair with Jacques Bost and sexual relationships with various young women challenges the conventional picture of Beauvoir as the devoted companion of Jean-Paul Sartre, just as her account of completing her novel She Came to Stay at a time when Sartre’s philosophy in Being and Nothingness was barely begun calls into question the traditional view of Beauvoir’s novel as merely illustrating Sartre’s philosophy. Most important, the Wartime Diary provides an exciting account of Beauvoir’s philosophical transformation from the prewar solipsism of She Came to Stay to the postwar political engagement of The Second Sex. This edition also features previously unpublished material, including her musings about consciousness and order, recommended reading lists, and notes on labor unions. In providing new insights into Beauvoir’s philosophical development, the Wartime Diary promises to rewrite a crucial chapter of Western philosophy and intellectual history.

Despite growing interest in her philosophy, Simone de Beauvoir remains widely misunderstood. She is typically portrayed as a mere intellectual follower of her companion, Jean-Paul Sartre. In Philosophical Writings, Beauvoir herself shows that nothing could be further from the truth. Beauvoir''s philosophical work suffers from a lack of English-language translation or, worse, mistranslation into heavily condensed popular versions. Philosophical Writings provides an unprecedented collection of complete, scholarly editions of philosophical texts that cover the first twenty-three years of Beauvoir''s career, including a number of recently discovered works. Ranging from metaphysical literature to existentialist ethics, Philosophical Writings brings together diverse elements of Beauvoir''s work while highlighting continuities in the development of her thought. Each of the translations features detailed notes and a scholarly introduction explaining its larger significance. Revelatory and long overdue, Philosophical Writings adds to the ongoing resurgence of interest in Beauvoir''s thought and to her growing influence on today''s philosophical curriculum.

A portrait of 1940s America by a French writer, eg. "The constipated girl smiles a loving smile at the lemon juice that relieves her intestines. In the subway, in the streets, on magazine pages, these smiles pursue me like obsessions. I read on a sign in a drugstore, ''Not to grin is a sin.'' Everyone obeys the order, the system. ''Cheer up! Take it easy.'' Optimism is necessary for the country''s social peace and economic prosperity."

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.

On a visit to America in 1947, Simone de Beauvoir met the left-wing writer Nelson Algren and an intense, transatlantic love affair began. The couple met only once or twice a year, but between liaisons, de Beauvoir wrote Algren hundreds of letters; these letters are reproduced here.

Set in Paris on the eve of World War II, the novel draws upon Simone de Beauvoir''s relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre, and the affair that almost destroyed it.

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) ha pasado a la historia como una de las figuras del siglo xx más comprometidas con los problemas de la sociedad occidental. Militante activa en favor de la emancipación de la mujer, su obra es la apasionada búsqueda de una moral profundamente humana. Destacan en su obra La invitada, Las bellas imágenes, Todos los hombres son mortales, Ceremonia del adiós, La mujer rota...

"L''Amérique n''est nulle part. Mais la musique échappe aux rigueurs de l''espace" (p. 179-180). A la fois essai et témoignage, ce livre a été écrit à la suite d''un séjour de quatre mois aux Etats-Unis, en 1947. Selon le préfacier, le regard de S. de Beauvoir, en particulier sur l''enseignement américain, "est très révélateur de la combinaison d''égalitarisme et d''élitisme, assez typiquement française, à laquelle elle est attachée" (cf. la préface, p. i-xvii).

As the definitive study of the universal problem of growing old, The Coming of Age is "a brilliant achievement" (Marc Slonin, New York Times).

Covering the years 1944 to 1952, this volume of the autobiography of legendary feminist and writer Simone de Beauvoir gives us not only an intimate account of her relationship with Sartre, but also a wonderful portrait of Parisian intellectual life. During this troubled period, French intellectuals grappled with the horrors of the Holocaust, the onset of the Cold War, and the beginning of colonial wars in Vietnam and Algeria. Beauvoir weaves memorable descriptions and anecdotes about leading members of the French postwar scene, including Genet, Camus, Richard Wright, Artaud, and Cocteau, with an account of her travels in Europe, Africa, and the United States. She also gives us an unforgettable chronicle of her romance with novelist Nelson Algren and of her struggle to live as an independent woman and writer.

The celebrated feminist and existentialist looks back on her later years, reevaluates incidents in her past, and shares her outlook on life

After a beautiful and accomplished young actress revives a downcast stranger at a French resort, he reveals that he is immortal.

The second volume of Simone de Beauvoirs autobiography, starting at the age of 21.

The classic manifesto of the liberated woman, this book explores every facet of a woman''s life.