New Releases by Simone de Beauvoir

A searing denunciation of French torture in Algeria by a classic feminist intellect In 1960, as the Algerian War for Independence entered its sixth year, 22-year-old Djamila Boupacha was arrested for allegedly planting a bomb in a university cafeteria. While in custody, she was tortured and raped by French soldiers. Her case would have been buried like countless others had it not been for the efforts of her lawyer, Gisèle Halimi, and the philosopher Simone de Beauvoir to transform it into an international cause célèbre. Djamila Boupacha is the culmination of this campaign to expose the systemic violence of colonial rule. “To protest in the name of morality against ‘excesses’ or ‘abuses,’” Beauvoir writes, “is an error which hints at active complicity. There are no ‘abuses’ or ‘excesses’ here, simply an all-pervasive system.” More than a historical document, the book is a profound exploration of morality, complicity and resistance. A classic text of anticolonialism, this is a story that demands to be read—and remembered.

Simone de Beauvoir’s gripping classic of a woman striving for perfection Laurence lives what appears to be an ideal existence. Her life features the trappings of 1960s Parisian bourgeoisie: money, a handsome husband, two daughters, and a lover. She also has a successful career as an advertising copywriter, though she can’t stop thinking about work while she’s at home and she dreams of domesticity while at the office. But Laurence gave up on happiness long ago, choosing instead to manifest the perfect image of wife, mother, daughter, homemaker, and career woman. It is only when she is relentlessly torn by the competing needs of her family and jarred into recognition of her own predicament by the despair of her ten-year-old daughter, Catherine, that Laurence begins to resist the hand she has been dealt. The Image of Her, the 1966 final novel by Simone de Beauvoir, freshly translated here by Lauren Elkin, is rooted in the feminist revolutions of its era, yet it remains a strikingly relevant confrontation with the limits that society places on women and their power.

Os adversários do existencialismo afirmam que uma filosofia da liberdade é, «a priori», incapaz de propor uma moral. Na medida em que somos livres, dizem eles, somos livres de desejar o que bem entendermos. Simone de Beauvoir propôs-se, por isso, avançar alguns princípios teóricos que validassem a possibilidade de uma moral existencialista, tarefa que Jean-Paul Sartre deixou por realizar.

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.

Uma das maiores intelectuais francesas da História, Simone de Beauvoir discorre neste livro sobre um período bastante decisivo em sua trajetória. A aproximação com a filosofia, o encontro com Jean-Paul Sartre e a eclosão da guerra em 1939 são acontecimentos que terminam por influenciar a formação literária, filosófica e política da escritora, que, mesmo em um cenário de agitação internacional, soube encontrar força no exercício da própria liberdade. Esta edição de A força da idade, uma das obras dedicadas às memórias de Simone, conta ainda com a apresentação de Mirian Goldenberg, antropóloga e colunista da Folha de S.Paulo.

O fim da Segunda Guerra Mundial, a França liberta do poder hitlerista e o recomeço da Europa são o ponto de partida para o terceiro livro de memórias de Simone de Beauvoir. Em A força das coisas, ela nos relata sua experiência como pensadora consagrada, numa escrita sóbria e madura. A autora remonta belas histórias de viagens (à Espanha e à Áustria, por exemplo) e o cotidiano da intelectualidade francesa, com montagens de peças, publicações de livros, divulgação de manifestos em revistas, enfim, o soerguimento das manifestações culturais no pós-guerra. Simone dedica ainda parte desta obra a suas impressões sobre o Brasil, a partir de sua visita com Sartre, guiada por Jorge Amado. Esta edição conta com a tradução de Maria Helena Franco Martins e traz um prefácio inédito da professora e pesquisadora Magda Guadalupe dos Santos.

Simone de Beauvoir, still a teen, began a diary while a philosophy student at the Sorbonne. Written in 1926-27—before Beauvoir met Jean-Paul Sartre—the diaries reveal previously unknown details about her life and times and offer critical insights into her early intellectual interests, philosophy, and literary works. Presented for the first time in translation, this fully annotated first volume of the Diary includes essays from Barbara Klaw and Margaret A. Simons that address its philosophical, historical, and literary significance. It remains an invaluable resource for tracing the development of Beauvoir’s independent thinking and her influence on philosophy, feminism, and the world.

Als Andrée de katholieke meisjesschool komt binnenlopen, is de negenjarige Sylvie – het alter ego van Simone de Beauvoir – direct onder de indruk. Dit meisje, gemodelleerd naar De Beauvoirs vriendin Zaza, heeft een jaar school gemist omdat ze ernstige brandwonden had opgelopen, maar gaat door het leven met een wonderbaarlijke zelfverzekerdheid die Sylvie alleen van volwassenen kent. Al snel wijken de twee niet meer van elkaars zijde. Sylvie en Andrée verdiepen zich in literatuur en filosofie en verkennen Parijs. Samen voeren ze een – vaak innerlijke – strijd tegen de conventionele verwachtingen rondom vrouwelijkheid, seksualiteit en geloof. In deze niet eerder verschenen autobiografische roman blikt Simone de Beauvoir terug op haar bijzondere vriendschap met Zaza. De onafscheidelijken is een wonderschone kennismaking met de jeugd van een van ''s werelds invloedrijkste

''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. "More than any other single human, [de Beauvior''s] responsible for the current international women''s movement." —Gloria Steinem "One of de Beauvoir''s most intriguing and original philosophical works." — Philosophy Now

El segundo sexo (Le Deuxième Sexe) es un libro escrito en 1949 por Simone de Beauvoir. Se le considera una de las obras más relevantes, a nivel filosófico, del siglo XX. Fue un rotundo éxito de ventas. Su autora comenzó a escribirlo cuando reflexionó sobre lo que había significado para ella el ser mujer. Comenzó a investigar acerca de la situación de las mujeres a lo largo de la historia y escribió este extenso ensayo que aborda cómo se ha concebido a la mujer, qué situaciones viven las mujeres y cómo se puede intentar que mejoren sus vidas y se amplíen sus libertades.Es una de las obras fundacionales del Feminismo y utiliza los conceptos existencialistas para indagar acerca de la vida de la mitad de la humanidad. También es considerada una obra enciclopédica, pues aborda la identidad de las mujeres y la diferencia sexual desde los puntos de vista de la psicología, la historia, la antropología, la biología, la reproducción y la relación afectivo-sexual.La teoría principal que sostiene Beauvoir es que "la mujer", o más exactamente lo que entendemos por mujer (coqueta, cariñosa, etc.) es un producto cultural que se ha construido socialmente. La mujer se ha definido a lo largo de la historia siempre respecto a algo: como madre, esposa, hija, hermana... Así pues, la principal tarea de la mujer es reconquistar su propia identidad específica y desde sus propios criterios. Muchas de las características que presentan las mujeres no les vienen dadas de su genética, sino de cómo han sido educadas y socializadas. La frase que resume esta teoría es muy célebre: "No se nace mujer: llega una a serlo".

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.

Some of the best of Simone de Brauvoir has been collected and compiled in this master book of her work. Included in this book is: Includes: The Ethics of Ambiguity, The Second Sex, On the publication of The Second Sex, interview Biography

Peu de temps après le jour V, je passai une nuit très gaie avec Camus, Chauffard, Loleh Bellon, Vitold, et une ravissante Portugaise qui s''appelait Viola. D''un bar de Montparnasse qui venait de fermer, nous descendîmes vers l''hôtel de la Louisiane; Loleh marchait pieds nus sur l''asphalte, elle disait : C''est mon anniversaire, j''ai vingt ans. Nous avons acheté des bouteilles et nous les avons bues dans la chambre ronde ; la fenêtre était ouverte sur la douceur de mai et des noctambules nous criaient des mots d''amitié ; pour eux aussi, c''était le premier printemps de paix. Simone de Beauvoir, née en 1908 à Paris, a raconté son enfance et son adolescence dans Mémoires d’une jeune fille rangée, sa vie à Paris, ses débuts d’écrivain, la guerre et l’Occupation dans La force de l’âge. La troisième partie de ses souvenirs, La force des choses, commence dans le Paris de la Libération.

"Nous commencerons par discuter les points de vue pris sur la femme par la biologie, la psychanalyse, le matérialisme historique. Nous essaierons de montrer ensuite positivement comment la "réalité féminine" s''est constituée, pourquoi la femme a été définie comme l''Autre et quelles en ont été les conséquences du point de vue des hommes. Alors nous décrirons du point de vue des femmes le monde tel qu''il leur est proposé ; et nous pourrons comprendre à quelles difficultés elles se heurtent au moment où, essayant de s''évader de la sphère qui leur a été jusqu''à présent assignée, elles prétendent participer au mitsein humain." Simone de Beauvoir.

»Pyrrhus & Cineas« [1944] är Simone de Beauvoirs första filosofiska essä och en nyckel till att förstå hennes existentialistiska filosofi, samt hur hennes tänkande kom att förändras över tid. Här reflekterar hon över den enskilda människans möte med den andre, och ställer grundläggande frågor om etik och politik: Angår andra människor mig? Vem är den andre? Kan vi handla och tala å andras vägnar? Kan våld legitimeras?

No início do século XX, em uma família da classe média parisiense, nasce Simone. Quando muito pequena, é arredia e tem ataques súbitos de irritação. Depois, quando se entrega à fé religiosa, a menina se acalma e torna-se um exemplo de filha e estudante. Mas ainda jovem vê as incongruências da religião católica, e sua formação intelectual toma outro rumo. Esse rumo culmina na adoção da filosofia existencialista e no envolvimento em causas polêmicas, como a defesa do aborto. Em Memórias de uma moça bem-comportada, conhecemos a infância e a juventude dessa menina que é ninguém menos do que Simone de Beauvoir. Dona de um espírito inconformado e autêntico, Simone de Beauvoir nos mostra neste primeiro relato autobiográfico a sua infância religiosa, a consequente descrença e a posterior devoção à literatura. Pela leitura dessas memórias, acompanhamos a vida dessa leitora voraz desde sempre em paralelo com seus gostos literários e sua dedicação à escrita. E entendemos como foram fundamentais os seus relacionamentos. A doce amizade com Zaza, a proximidade com sua irmã e o amor infantil por Jacques eram a alegria e a pacificação de seu coração. Mais tarde, quando fazia sua formação na Sorbonne, outras amizades lhe foram importantes: André Herbaud, o qual lhe deu o eterno apelido de Castor (pela semelhança de Beauvoir com beaver, em inglês), Stépha e, claro, Jean-Paul Sartre. Memorialista entusiástica, Simone publicou diversas obras autobiográficas sobre tempos determinados de sua vida. Seu estilo próprio e sua constante busca pela verdade não apenas revelam a vida de uma pessoa, mas apresentam uma época vivida por um de seus grandes personagens. Sobre Memórias de uma moça bem-comportada, Simone de Beauvoir diz: “Há uma unidade romanesca que não está presente nos volumes seguintes. Como nos romances de aprendizagem, do início ao fim o tempo transcorre com rigor.” E com rigor lemos uma das memórias mais adoráveis da literatura mundial. “Quando encontrei Simone de Beauvoir, tive a impressão de ter com ela as melhores relações que se possa ter com alguém. As mais completas. Éramos um igual ao outro, não podíamos imaginar outra coisa. Eu tinha encontrado uma mulher igual ao que eu era como homem.” – Jean-Paul Sartre

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. Culled from sources including various American university collections, the works span decades of Beauvoir''s career. Ranging from dramatic works and literary theory to radio broadcasts, they collectively reveal fresh insights into Beauvoir''s writing process, personal life, and the honing of her philosophy. The volume begins with a new translation of the 1945 play The Useless Mouths, written in Paris during the Nazi occupation. Other pieces were discovered after Beauvoir''s death in 1986, such as the 1965 short novel "Misunderstanding in Moscow," involving an elderly French couple who confront their fears of aging. Two additional previously unknown texts include the fragmentary "Notes for a Novel," which contains the seed of what she later would call "the problem of the Other," and a lecture on postwar French theater titled Existentialist Theater. The collection notably includes the 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?" Prefaces to well-known works such as Bluebeard and Other Fairy Tales,La Bâtarde, and James Joyce in Paris: His Final Years are also available in English for the first time, alongside essays and other short articles. A landmark contribution to Beauvoir studies and French literary studies, the volume includes informative and engaging introductory essays by prominent and rising scholars. Contributors are 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.

In three interviews, the Marxist historian and scholar Perry Anderson takes Sartre on a wide-ranging tour of his philosophy and politics

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. She 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.

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.

Laurence piensa en ese rey que transformaba en oro todo lo que tocaba y que había convertido a su hijita en una magnífica muñeca de metal. Todo lo que ella toca se transforma en imagen. La ambientación y los protagonistas de "las bellas imágenes" sirven a Simone de Beauvoir en esta novela para mostrar la hipocresía y las mentiras del modelo burgués.

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.

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.

In her most famous novel, The Mandarins, Simone de Beauvoir takes an unflinching look at Parisian intellectual society at the end of World War II. In fictionally relating the stories of those around her -- Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Arthur Koestler, Nelson Algren -- de Beauvoir dissects the emotional and philosophical currents of her time. At once an engrossing drama and an intriguing political tale, The Mandarins is the emotional odyssey of a woman torn between her inner desires and her public life. "Much more than a roman à clef . . . a moving and engrossing novel." -- New York Times