Simone de Beauvoir (January 9, 1908 – April 14, 1986) was a French author and philosopher. She wrote novels, monographs on philosophy, politics, and social issues, essays, biographies, and an autobiography. She is now best known for her metaphysical novels, including She Came to Stay and The Mandarins, and for her 1949 treatise The Second Sex, a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism.
Franklin Library Simone de Beauvoir books
The Second Sex - signed limited edition - 1979
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Who was Simone de Beauvoir?
Simone de Beauvoir was the daughter of Georges de Beauvoir, a one-time lawyer and amateur actor, and Françoise Brasseur, a young woman from Verdun. She was born in Paris as 'Simone-Lucie-Ernestine-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir' and was educated at good schools. After World War I, Simone's maternal grandfather Gustave Brasseur, president of the Meuse Bank, went bankrupt, throwing his entire family into dishonor and poverty. The family had to move into a smaller apartment and Georges de Beauvoir had to go back to work; his relationship with his wife suffered.
Simone was always aware that her father had hoped to have a son, instead of two daughters (younger sister Hélène de Beauvoir became a painter). However, he did tell Simone "You have the brain of a man," and from a young age Simone was a distinguished student. Georges de Beauvoir passed his love of theater and literature to his daughter. He became convinced that only scholarly success could lift his daughters out of poverty.
At 15, Simone de Beauvoir had already decided she would be a famous writer. She did well in many subjects, but was especially attracted to philosophy, which she went on to study at the University of Paris. There she met many other young intellectuals, including Jean-Paul Sartre.
After passing the baccalaureate exams in mathematics and philosophy, she studied mathematics at the Institut Catholique and literature/languages at the Institut Sainte-Marie, then philosophy at the Sorbonne. In 1929, while at the Sorbonne, Beauvoir gave a presentation on Leibniz and was thereafter involved in a relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre. It is a common misconception that Beauvoir studied at the Ecole Normale. She was, however, well acquainted with the school and its curriculum, thanks to Sartre and others within their philosophic circle.
In 1929, at the age of 21, Beauvoir became the youngest person ever to obtain the agrégation in philosophy. On the final examination she received second place; Sartre, age 24, was first (he'd failed his first exam). According to Deirdre Bair's 1990 biography of Beauvoir, the jury for the agrégation argued over whether to give Sartre or Beauvoir first place in the competition. In the end they awarded it to Sartre because he was a man and it was his second attempt. The jury, however, agreed that Beauvoir was the real philosopher.
While at the Sorbonne, Beauvoir acquired her lifelong nickname, Castor, the French word for "beaver" given to her because of the animal's strong work ethic and the resemblance of her surname to the English word "beaver".
Later years
Beauvoir wrote popular travel diaries about her travels in the United States and China, and published essays and fiction rigorously, especially throughout the 1950s and 1960s. She published several volumes of short stories, including The Woman Destroyed, which, like some of her other later work, deals with aging.
In 1979 she published When Things of the Spirit Come First, a set of short stories centered around and based upon important women to her earlier years. The stories were written well before the novel She Came to Stay, but Beauvoir did not think they were worthy of publication until about forty years later.
Sartre and Merleau-Ponty had a longstanding feud, which led Merleau-Ponty to no longer work with Les Temps Modernes. Beauvoir sided with Sartre and ceased to associate with Merleau-Ponty. In Beauvoir's later years, she hosted the journal's editorial meetings in her flat and contributed more than Sartre, who she often had to force to offer his opinions.
Beauvoir also notably wrote a four-volume autobiography, consisting of: Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter; The Prime of Life; Force of Circumstance (sometimes published in two volumes in English translation: After the War and Hard Times); and All Said and Done.
In the 1970s Beauvoir became active in France's women's liberation movement. She signed the Manifesto of the 343 in 1971, a list of famous women who claimed, mostly falsely, to have had an abortion. Beauvoir had not actually had an abortion.[citation needed] Signatories were diverse as Catherine Deneuve, Delphine Seyrig, and Beauvoir's sister Poupette. In 1974, abortion was legalized in France.
Her 1970 long essay La Vieillesse (The Coming of Age) is a very rare instance of an intellectual meditation on the decline and solitude all humans experience if they do not die before about age 60. In 1981 she wrote La Cérémonie Des Adieux (A Farewell to Sartre), a painful account of Sartre's last years. In the opening of Adieux, Beauvoir notes that it is the only major published work of hers Sartre did not read before its publication. She and Sartre always read one another's work.
After Sartre died, Beauvoir published his letters to her with edits to spare the feelings of some people in their circle who were still living. After Beauvoir's death, Sartre's adopted daughter and literary heir Arlette Elkaïm would not let many of Sartre's letters be published in unedited form. Most of Sartre's letters available today have Beauvoir's edits, which include a few omissions but mostly the use of pseudonyms. Beauvoir's adopted daughter and literary heir Sylvie Le Bon, quite unlike Elkaïm, published Beauvoir's unedited letters to both Sartre and Algren.
Death
Beauvoir died of pneumonia. She is buried next to Sartre at the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris. Since her death, her reputation has grown, not only because she is seen as the mother of post-1968 feminism, especially in academia, but also because of a growing awareness of her as a major French thinker, existentialist philosopher and otherwise.
There is much contemporary discussion about the influences of Beauvoir and Sartre on one another. She is seen as having influenced Sartre's masterpiece, Being and Nothingness, while also having written much on philosophy that is independent of Sartrean existentialism. Some scholars have explored the influences of her earlier philosophical essays and treatises upon Sartre's later thought. She is studied by many respected academics both within and outside of philosophy circles, including Margaret A. Simons and Sally Scholtz. Beauvoir's life has also inspired numerous biographies.
In 2006, the architect Dietmar Feichtinger designed a sophisticated footbridge across the Seine, named the Passerelle Simone-de-Beauvoir after Beauvoir. The bridge features feminine curves and leads to the new Bibliothèque nationale de France.
The Second Sex summary
The Second Sex was originally published as a two volume book in France. These works were very quickly published in America as The Second Sex owing to the quick translation by Howard Parshley, as prompted by Blanche Knopf, wife of publisher Alfred A. Knopf. Because Parshley had only a basic familiarity with the French language, and a minimal understanding of philosophy (he was a professor of biology at Smith College), much of Beauvoir's book was mistranslated or inappropriately cut, distorting much of her intended message. Nevertheless, to this day, Knopf has prevented the introduction of a more accurate retranslation of Beauvoir's work, having declined all proposals despite the efforts of existentialist scholars.
In her own way, Beauvoir anticipated the sexually charged feminism of Erica Jong and Germaine Greer. Algren, no paragon of primness himself, was outraged by the frank way Beauvoir later described her American sexual experiences in The Mandarins (dedicated to Algren and on whose character Lewis Brogan is based) and in her autobiographies, venting his outrage when reviewing American translations of her work. Much bearing on this episode in Beauvoir's life, including her love letters to Algren, entered the public domain only after her death.
In the essay Woman: Myth and Reality, Beauvoir argued that men had made women the "Other" in society by putting a false aura of "mystery" around them. She argued that men used this as an excuse not to understand women or their problems and not to help them, and that this stereotyping was always done in societies by the group higher in the hierarchy to the group lower in the hierarchy. She wrote that this also happened on the basis of other categories of identity, such as race, class, and religion. But she said that it was nowhere more true than with sex in which men stereotyped women and used it as an excuse to organize society into a patriarchy.
Beauvoir's The Second Sex, published in French in 1949, sets out a feminist existentialism which prescribes a moral revolution. As an existentialist, Beauvoir accepts the precept that existence precedes essence; hence one is not born a woman, but becomes one. Her analysis focuses on the concept of The Other. It is the (social) construction of Woman as the quintessential Other that Beauvoir identifies as fundamental to women's oppression.
The principal 1932 treatment by the feminist author Adrienne Sahuqué, borne circa 1890, entitled Les dogmes sexuels (Paris, Alcan, 1932) had already approached, fifteen years prior to the publication of The Second Sex the question of sexist prejudices against women.
Beauvoir argues that women have historically been considered deviant, abnormal. She submits that even Mary Wollstonecraft considered men to be the ideal toward which women should aspire. Beauvoir says that this attitude has limited women's success by maintaining the perception that they are a deviation from the normal, and are outsiders attempting to emulate "normality". For feminism to move forward, this assumption must be set aside.
Beauvoir asserted that women are as capable of choice as men, and thus can choose to elevate themselves, moving beyond the 'immanence' to which they were previously resigned and reaching 'transcendence', a position in which one takes responsibility for oneself and the world, where one chooses one's freedom.
A critical essay, "Le Malentendu du Deuxième Sexe," was written by Suzanne Lilar in 1969.
What is existentialism to Simone De Beauvoir?
Existentialism
is a philosophical movement that emerged in the 20th century, primarily
in Europe, and it focuses on the individual's experience of existence
and the inherent meaninglessness of life. Simone de Beauvoir, a French
existentialist philosopher and writer, made significant contributions to
existentialist thought, particularly in the realm of feminist
existentialism. Like other existentialists, de Beauvoir embraced the
idea that existence precedes essence. This means that individuals exist
first, and through their choices and actions, they define their essence
or identity. There is no predetermined essence or purpose for human
beings; it is up to each person to create their own meaning.
Existentialism emphasizes individual freedom and the responsibility that
comes with it. De Beauvoir argued that individuals must take
responsibility for their choices and actions, even in the face of the
constraints imposed by society.
De Beauvoir introduced the
concept of "The Other" in her influential work The Second Sex. She
explored the ways in which women are often treated as "the Other" in
relation to men, leading to their marginalization and oppression. This
feminist perspective added a crucial dimension to existentialist
thought. De Beauvoir acknowledged the ambiguity of human existence. Life
is filled with uncertainties, and individuals often face conflicting
desires and values. Embracing this ambiguity is an essential part of the
existentialist experience. De Beauvoir's book The Ethics of Ambiguity
(1947) further explores existentialist ethics. She discusses the idea
that individuals must live authentically, accepting the ambiguity of
existence and making choices that reflect their commitment to freedom
and responsibility. Simone de Beauvoir's contributions to
existentialism, especially her feminist perspective, have had a profound
impact on philosophy and feminist theory. Her works continue to be
influential in discussions about freedom, responsibility, and the lived
experience of individuals.
Simone de Beauvoir passed away on
April 14, 1986, in Paris, leaving behind a lasting legacy as a
philosopher, feminist, and literary figure. Her contributions to
existentialist philosophy and feminist thought have inspired generations
of thinkers and writers, and The Second Sex remains a foundational text
in feminist literature and philosophy.
Simone de Beauvoir quotes
"One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation, and compassion."
"I am too intelligent, too demanding, and too resourceful for anyone to be able to take charge of me entirely. No one knows me or loves me completely. I have only myself."
"I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth and truth rewarded me."
"To catch a husband is an art; to hold him is a job."
"One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman."
"Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with absolute truth."
"I am awfully greedy; I want everything from life. I want to be a woman and to be a man, to have many friends and to have loneliness, to work much and write good books, to travel and enjoy myself, to be selfish and to be unselfish… You see, it is difficult to get all which I want. And then when I do not succeed, I get mad with anger."
Simone de Beauvoir books
She Came to Stay, (1943)
Pyrrhus et Cinéas, (1944)
The Blood of Others, (1945)
Who Shall Die?, (1945)
All Men are Mortal, (1946)
The Ethics of Ambiguity, (1947)
The Second Sex, (1949)
America Day by Day, (1954)
The Mandarins, (1954)
Must We Burn Sade?, (1955)
The Long March, (1957)
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, (1958)
The Prime of Life, (1960)
Force of Circumstance, (1963)
A Very Easy Death, (1964)
Les Belles Images, (1966)
The Woman Destroyed, (1967)
The Coming of Age, (1970)
All Said and Done, (1972)
When Things of the Spirit Come First, (1979)
Adieux: A Farewell to Sartre, (1981)
Letters to Sartre, (1990)
A Transatlantic Love Affair: Letters to Nelson Algren, (1998)
Source and additional information: Simone de Beauvoir