Simone de Beauvoir: One life

3 books by Simone de Beauvoir you should add to your reading list. by Clara Rodier

Simone de Beauvoir in full Simone-Lucie-Ernestine-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, was born in 1908 in Paris. Considered by feminist movements as a pioneer of women’s liberation, her whole life was a demonstration that one can be a woman and lead an independent and free life. She was a French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist. She became, in the Paris of the 1950s, the symbol of the free woman, claiming her place as a writer alongside the great post-war intellectuals. She had a significant influence on both feminist existentialism and feminist theory. She was one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. Here are the three most popular books you need to add to your reading list.

Essay The Second Sex (1949):

“No one is more arrogant toward women, more aggressive or scornful, that the man who is anxious about his virility”. —S. de Beauvoir (The Second Sex, 1949)

Published in 1949, The Second Sex is De Beauvoir’s nearly 1,000-page written in two years and become a standard of fe minist culture. This essay is a critique of patriarchy and the second-rate status granted to women throughout history. In this book, she asked existential questions “what it means to be a woman?” “are we born women?”. The Second Sex advocates sexual independence, lesbianism, defends abortion and questions the role of mother. Revolutionary ideas in 1949 when the book was published. The book was received with great controversy, with some critics characterizing the book as pornography and the Vatican placing the work on the church’s list of forbidden texts. Nowadays The Second Sex is considered to be a bible of contemporary feminism and also the starting point of second-wave feminism.

“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” —S. de Beauvoir

Novels

The Mandarins (1954)

Simone de Beauvoir was Winner of the 1954 Goncourt Prize, the most prestigious French literary prize with “The Mandarins”. This novel accurately and sensitively depicts the French intellectuals group of the post-war period and the debates surrounding communism. This book is inseparable from its historical context; the post-war period and the rise of tensions that would divide the world into two hegemonic blocs. The milieu described is that of the “mandarins”, a title for left-wing intellectuals, former members of the Resistance, who intend to continue their anti-fascist struggle in building socialism. It is generally believed that the characters are based on members of de Beauvoir and Sartre’s own circle of friends at the time, including Albert Camus and Arthur Koestler.

N’oubliez jamais qu’il suffira d’une crise politique, économique ou religieuse pour que les droits des femmes soient remis en question. Ces droits ne sont jamais acquis. Vous devrez rester vigilantes votre vie durant.

Never forget that a political, economic or religious crisis will be enough to call women’s rights into question. These rights can never be taken for granted. You will have to remain vigilant throughout your lives.

Autobiography

Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (1958)

In Memoir of a Dutiful Daughter Simone de Beauvoir describes her upbringing in an impoverished and downtrodden bourgeois French family, and then her turn away from the readymade life her family offered her. In this very first autobiography she depicts her as a rebellious teenager against the conventional expectations of her parents and her class and her determination to establish herself in her own intellectual right. Friendship, travel stories, philosophical musing, love, and learning are all key elements of the story. Her work expresses her anti-conformism towards the society of the time.