Simone de Beauvoir

Biography

The life of Simone de Beauvoir closely parallels that
of her colleague, friend, and lover Jean-Paul Sartre. Her life is well documented, due to her many autobiographical works. These works also follow the lives of Sartre, Albert Camus, and other prominent philosophers of the twentieth century.

Early Years

Simone Ernestine Lucie Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir was
born on 9 January 1908, in Paris, to Françoise and Georges de Beauvoir.
While Ernestine and Lucie were the names of her grandmothers, Marie was
her “Christian” name to honor the Virgin Mary. The Catholic faith would
be important to Simone until her adolescence.

According to her autobiographies and interviews, Simone
was reading by the age of three and attempting to write almost as soon
as she could read. She obtained this love for words from her father, who
had a passion for books and the theatre.

Zaza

Simone met Elizabeth “Zaza” Le Coin as a schoolgirl.
Simone admired Zaza’s outgoing personality; she could be bold and spontaneous,
while Simone was generally shy. Like Simone, Zaza was from a bourgeois
Catholic family. Social standing was important to both families, but Zaza’s
experiences with social norms would shape de Beauvoir’s views of social
order. It is possible Zaza’s life helped create de Beauvoir’s feminism
and sense of social justice.

As a student, Zaza met and fell in love with Maurice
Merleau-Ponty. Unfortunately for the two lovers, Mr. Le Coin had already arranged a marriage for his daughter. Zaza’s parents demanded that she never see Merleau-Ponty or Simone again, as they deemed both to be corrupting influences. Elizabeth Le Coin died of encephalitis in 1929.

Simone wrote of Zaza’s short life several times. For
de Beauvoir, the death of her friend revealed how unreasonable French social
order was and how unfair life could be.

Career Woman

Within “proper” French society, a young woman of Simone’s
class was expected to marry and raise children. Simone had other plans,
deciding to pursue a career teaching and writing, much to the chagrin of
her father. Yet there was little choice but to accept his daughter’s wishes;
Georges lacked the financial security to attract an acceptable suitor.
Again, Simone came to view French culture as absurdly preoccupied with
matters of money and class.

Simone began taking courses at the Sorbonne in 1926.
She completed her “certificate of letters” in 1927, the first step towards
qualifying as a teacher in France. She was a student with Maurice
Merleau-Ponty and Claude Lévi-Strauss.

In 1929, Simone began to study for the agrégation
exam in philosophy. Passing the exam would qualify her for a teaching post.
While studying, she met Jean-Paul Sartre. René Maheu had asked Simone to join a study group, which included Sartre. It was during these study sessions that Maheu nicknamed de Beauvoir “The Beaver,” or Castor in French. This nickname was based both on the English name for the animal and its reputation as a dedicated worker.

Sartre corresponded exactly to the dream companion I had longed for
since I was fifteen: he was the double in whom I found all my burning
aspirations raised to the pitch of incandescence. I should always be
able to share everything with him…
— Memoirs of a Dutiful
Daughter, 1959

Simone received a post at a lycée in Marseille
in 1931, to the disappointment of Jean-Paul who received a post at in Le
Harve. While the two never married, Sartre proposed to de Beauvoir in 1931,
which would have resulted in them being placed together under French policies
mandating that married couples be granted state positions near each other.
To his dismay, Simone declined the proposal. The complex relationship between
Sartre and de Beauvoir would never be traditional, and it is unlikely an
official marriage would have changed this.

Olga, Sartre, and a Novel

In 1932 Simone was transferred to Rouen. While teaching
in Rouen, de Beauvoir began a relationship with a student of hers, Olga
Kosakiewicz. When Sartre was added to the relationship, the complexity
eventually overwhelmed the trio. While Simone imagined the trio would enforce
an “authenticity” on relationships, the reality was that Olga later presented
a threat to Simone’s confidence and self-perception.

The relationship significantly challenged Beauvoir’s conception of herself.
Olga confronted her as an independent consciousness; Beauvoir could not
simply cast Olga in the role of object to her own consciousness. […]
The trio of Sartre-Beauvoir-Olga was an attempt to live relationships
with another consciousness authentically; the third person was to challenge
the other two to relate to each individual involved with genuine reciprocity.
— On de Beauvoir; Scholz, p. 11

The relationship would later be chronicled in the novel She
Came to Stay (L’Invitee).

The War Years

When Sartre was conscripted in 1939, de Beauvoir was
forced to consider European politics. Until that time, she was focused
on teaching, writing, and theoretical debates among friends. Suddenly the
debates were about the very real nature of life, death, and personal choices.

Possibly the most influential work by Jean-Paul
Sartre, Being and Nothingness was published in 1943. As noted in the commentaries, there is some debate as to Simone de Beauvoir’s influence upon Sartre. Did this work, edited by de Beauvoir, shape her thoughts, or are the marks of her intellect to be found in Sartre’s great work? That scholars still debate the role each played in the other’s works is indicative of how closely they were linked.

In the fall of 1943, de Beauvoir’s first novel was published. She
Came to Stay was a fictionalized account of her relationships with Sartre and Olga Kosakiewicz. Living in occupied Paris, de Beauvoir and Sartre maintained close ties to several of their former students. In addition to Olga, Nathalie Sorokine and Jacques-Laurent Bost completed a unique social group. These three individuals were dedicated to Sartre and de Beauvoir intellectually, but also in a more complex manner.

Sartre and Beauvoir spent the war years with an intimate group of friends
called “the family.” […] Among the members of “the family” were to be
counted Olga and Jacques-Laurent Bost, Sartre’s former student, both
of whom were significantly younger than Beauvoir and Sartre.The family
frequently pooled resources and cooked together. Since she lived in hotels
and ate at cafés most of her life, this was Beauvoir’s only real
experience of cooking, to say nothing of the other domestic duties she
was forced into adopting during the war. It is significant that the future
author of The Second Sex was so unencumbered of domestic duties most of her life.
— On de Beauvoir; Scholz, p. 12

Philosophical exploration, especially studying the role
of individual choice, was de Beauvoir’s academic passion. In 1944, her
work Pyrrhus et Cinéas was published. It featured a study of individual choice, as did her 1947 work The
Ethics of Ambiguity (Pour une Morale de l’Ambiguité). These works demonstrate the underlying themes of existentialism: the importance of free will and the anxiety of the individual.

Postwar

After World War II, de Beauvoir joined Sartre at Les
Tempes Modernes, a “leftist” journal of sorts named for the Chaplin film, Modern Times. Founded in 1945 by Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and their intellectual circle of friends, Simone would remain on the editorial staff until her death. This journal served de Beauvoir well; her works often first appeared in its pages.

The postwar French sought to understand what had occurred
to them during World War II. The war affected France a great deal, raising
a great many moral questions. Published in 1945, The
Blood of Others (Le Sang des Autres) was de Beauvoir’s exploration of the dilemmas confronting a Resistance leader during the war. The book sold well; the reviews were also complimentary. Her friend Albert Camus wrote a positive review Simone treasured.

At some point in 1945, Simone wrote her only play, Useless
Mouths (Les Bouches Inutiles), which has also been called Who Shall Die?

In 1946 Simone’s attempt to explain the ethics of mortality, All
Men are Mortal, was published. For Simone, the project was a long, demanding effort. She wanted to study ethical questions about immortality: how does mortality affect human relationships and ethical systems? The result was not well-received by critics. The work was considered weak and confusing. For de Beauvoir, feeling misunderstood was a shock.

The United States (and a Crocodile Husband)

A five-month tour of the United States during 1947 reinforced
many of de Beauvoir’s opinions; she saw what she wanted to see, some critics
have noted. She had been invited to the United States to lecture on philosophy
at a number of universities. While in Chicago she contacted writer Nelson
Algren, who took her on a tour of the more colorful parts of the city —
not typical tourist destinations.

When Simone first called, Nelson initially hung-up on
Simone, but she eventually persuaded him of her identity. Something must
have clicked, because during February 1947 the two became lovers. Their
relationship would last seventeen years, complicated by their other relationships.
(Sartre was the greatest complication for de Beauvoir.) Simone called Nelson
her “crocodile husband” as a reference to his smile, while he called her
his “frog wife” in reference to her French nationality.

Simone’s observations on American life were published
in 1948 as America Day
by Day (L’Amérique au Jour le Jour). The work is critical of social problems within the United States, ranging from class inequalities to racism.

The love between Algren and de Beauvoir was more romantic
and passionate than her relationship with Sartre had ever been. In either
1950 or 1951, depending on the source, Nelson wrote to Simone that he would
marry her. Once again, Simone declined an offer of marriage. This time
it was because she could not break from either Sartre or her life in France.

In 1997, eleven years after Simone’s death, some of her
letters to Nelson Algren were published. More than 300 letters were written
from 1947 through 1964. From these letters, scholars have noted both the
publicly suppressed passion of de Beauvoir and her depth of knowledge.

Fame and The Second Sex

While Simone de Beauvoir was recognized before The
Second Sex, this work firmly established her as a philosophical and political leader. Feminism, or at least the roots of “gender studies,” was born in 1949 with publication of The
Second Sex. Granted, that seems a simplification of history, but de Beauvoir’s collection of essays on what it means to be a woman have shaped the discussion.

Simone started The Second Sex in 1947, while in America. The influence of her views on the United States can be detected throughout the work due to mentions of race relations and sexism in America.

((see pg. 3, btm, “The discrepancy between…” —
SdB reader))

Excerpts from The Second Sex appeared in May, June, and July 1949 editions of Les Tempes modernes. According to Simone, the work was meant to be political and philosophical, not only about sexuality. When the complete first volume was published, it caused quite a sensation in Europe and the United States.

The publication of The Second Sex marked something of a turning point for Beauvoir. Already well known for her novels and philosophical essays, this colossal study of the condition of women gained her international fame. Hailed as “the mother of second wave feminism,” Beauvoir waited until the early 1970s before calling herself a feminist and actively participating in the movement. […] Indeed, The
Second Sex will continue to be the foundation piece for feminist theory as well as an inspiration for individual women to question the effects of the social construction of gender on their daily lived experience.
— On de Beauvoir; Scholz, p. 12

A second volume of The Second
Sex was published in November, 1949. The publication generated a great deal of press attention. Coincided with an interest in human sexuality in the United States and Europe. The Kinsey
Report, the research of Masters and Johnson, and other events were indicative of a major social shift in the United States.

Alfred Charles Kinsey (1894-1956) was a biologist at
Indiana University. Kinsey and his staff interviewed thousands of people
in the United States and Canada during the 1930s and 40s, testing his assumptions
that humans behaved like other animals when it came to mating and pair
bonds. Kinsey’s reports were published as two books: Sexual Behavior
in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the
Human Female (1953). Both books were best selling works, though they had been intended for other biologists, physicians, sociologists, and psychologists. Doctor William Masters (1915–2001) and his research associate Victoria Johnson (1925–) also theorized biology was the primary influence on gender relations. They later examined psychology, as well. (As an aside, Masters and Johnson were married from 1971–1993.)

Simone de Beauvoir’s timing could not have been better.
Sexuality was an academic topic, no longer something limited to quiet whispers
or the rare psychological theory. Biological and sociological factors were
considered valid points of study. Simone believed social factors were most
important in gender relations, while Kinsey pondered biology.

Catholic writer François Mauriac led a social campaign
against The Second Sex, as well as other sexually explicit literature. Mauriac labeled de Beauvoir’s candid descriptions as pornography. Other critics and readers called de Beauvoir a “nymphomaniac.” Those in literary circles complained that her study of sexuality and the roles of women was too dispassionate. Yet, the book was clearly a success because of the controversy as much as anything Simone stated.

Even More Fame

In 1952, Simone met Claude Lanzmann. Claude joined the
staff of Les Temps Modernes in 1951 or 52, and quickly began courting Simone despite being 17 years her junior. The age difference pleased Simone, who had started to doubt her attractiveness. To be wanted to a charming, younger man brought a new energy to de Beauvoir.

The couple moved in together and were quite serious for
nearly two years. They parted in 1954, when Simone purchased an apartment
in Monparnasse. She would live in the small apartment until her death in
1986. With frequent travel and generally eating at cafés, she did
not need a great deal of space.

About the time Simone and Claude parted ways, she was
awarded the Prix Goncourt, France’s highest literary award, for The
Mandarins (Les Mandarins). Simone de Beauvoir was the third woman to receive the award.

The novel was about left-wing intellectuals in postwar
France. It was seen as a follow-up to The
Blood of Others, and in a similar fashion contained a great deal of autobiographical details.

Unfortunately, her career and reputation were about to
be damaged by her embrace of communism. None of her future works would
have the influence of The Second Sex. Simone would publish her last novel in 1966, becoming something of a symbol of what might have been. The public enjoyed Les Belles Images, a novel about a woman balancing career and romance, but the critics thought it lacked social insights. Simone was now expected to have social insights, even when she sought to tell an interesting story.

Communism and Rebellion

Why did Simone de Beauvoir’s star fade in public and
critical circles? There were two reasons: her embrace of communism started
to seem untenable and she became a critic of French colonialism.

Today, we can appreciate how French colonialism still
affects world politics. France’s Indochina policies resulted in Vietnam
and certainly influenced the strongman leaders of Pacific nations. The
continent of Africa is still dealing with the legacy of French colonialism,
in addition to other religious and political uprisings.

While de Beauvoir was eventually proved correct about
the dangerous nature of French colonialism, she was as wrong as could be
imagined when it came to the nature of global communism.

Simone’s interest in politics increased steadily after
World War II. As with many of her contemporaries, de Beauvoir drifted increasingly
to the left of the political spectrum. By the 1950s, de Beauvoir was defending
the Communist governments of China and the Soviet Union on a regular basis
— and routinely criticizing “Capitalism” as practiced in the United States
and much of Western Europe. During the 1950s and 60s, de Beauvoir’s support
of communist theory and Communist parties increased, as did her political
activity.

In 1955, de Beauvoir and Sartre accepted official invitations
to visit the Soviet Union and China. These tours were important public
relations events for the two communist nations. Their goal was to appeal
to the left-leaning academics and labor leaders in France, and possibly
appealing to activists in other Western nations.

The Long
March (La Longue Marche) was published in 1957. This one work effectively removed Simone from bookstores and many colleges in the United States.

This is probably her worst book in both style and content (she admitted
to Nelson Algren that the book was written largely to obtain money).
Beauvoir praises the accomplishments of communism in China and it is
clear to the reader that she either turned a blind eye to the problems
of the communist revolution there or was simply naive enough to believe
that the entire country was as well off as what she saw on her official
visit.
— On de Beauvoir; Scholz, p. 14

While other French radicals were starting to criticize
the Communist parties in the Soviet Union and China, Simone was steadfastly
supporting “communists” throughout the world. (She was apparently unconcerned
by the dictatorial and militaristic natures of these men.)

She traveled to Cuba in 1960, at the invitation of Castro.
She started to actively support the Vietnamese Communist party over the
French colonial government about the same time.

Starting in the mid-1950s, Simone started to actively
oppose the French colonial authority in Algeria. In 1962, with Gisèle Halimi,
Simone published an account of the torture of Djamila Boupacha, a young
Algerian. The authors argued that not opposing the actions of the French
government was morally equivalent to endorsing the torture of “Arab” rebels.
To this day, France is dealing with the consequences of its actions in
North Africa.

The Memoirs

The first volume of Simone’s memoirs was published in
1958. After The Long March, the success of Memoirs
of a Dutiful Daughter (Mémoires d’une Jeune
Fille Rangée) quickly restored de Beauvoir in European literary circles.

Additional memoirs followed, though none would enjoy
quite the success of Memoirs
of a Dutiful Daughter. The
Prime of Life (La Force de L’Âge), The
Force of Circumstances (La Forces des Choses), and All Said and
Done (Tout Compte Fait) were mildly successful with the public. The memoirs might have been “too open” in some ways, with The
Force of Circumstances leading to a final break between Nelson Algren and de Beauvoir. Algren was angered that his private life would be made so public.

Possibly the most touching and literary of the memoirs
is A Very Easy Death. The memoir recounts the death of Simone’s mother, Françoise. Regardless of her political or philosophical standing, A
Very Easy Death recounts emotions and situations familiar to many daughters.

Beauvoir’s relationship with her mother had been fraught with tension
and even loathing at times. […] Nonetheless, when her mother was dying,
Beauvoir felt a rush of emotions, at times very conflicting, which she
expressed in A Very
Easy Death. […] This account of her mother’s death was the younger Beauvoir’s way of coping with her loss but it is also a moving reflection on death, a theme with which she had long been fascinated.
— On de Beauvoir; Scholz, p. 15

Feminism and Sylvie

Simone met Sylvie Le Bon sometime during the illness
of Françoise de Beauvoir. As part of her philosophy studies, Sylvie had
requested an interview with Simone. The two became close friends, in part
because Simone appreciated having someone with whom she could discuss her
emotions. After the death of her mother, Simone was encouraged by the young
student to write about the experience and emotions.

The depth of de Beauvoir’s feelings for Le Bon were evident
with the publication of All
Said and Done, which is dedicated to Sylvie. Published in 1972, the women had been friends for nearly a decade. The nature of their relationship had evolved from teacher-student to something more.

The younger Le Bon also encouraged de Beauvoir to become
more active in the feminist movement within France and throughout the world.
However, Simone came to believe that the academic feminism of the 1970s
was too theoretical, making it hard for working-class women to relate to
the leadership of the movement.

In interviews Beauvoir revised her position on socialism noting that
socialism alone was insufficient for woman’s liberation. She also used
her name to support campaigns in favor of abortion [access] and against
domestic violence. The interviews she conducted at this time indicate
her displeasure at some of the trends in feminism, in particular her
discontent with theoretical positions based on deconstruction. Such abstract
feminism that tries to reinvent a woman’s language or a woman’s way of
writing, she thought, was too far removed from the lives of everyday,
ordinary women.
— On de Beauvoir; Scholz, p. 17

As both an act of love and to secure an heir, Simone adopted Sylvie in
1980.

Open Ending

The final years of Simone de Beauvoir’s life were marked
by Sartre’s illnesses and eventual death. Simone attempted to factually
record their relationship, as best she could considering her strong emotional
attachment to Sartre. Unfortunately, what de Beauvoir viewed as reporting
facts was perceived by many as an attack on Sartre and his life. One person
offended by de Beauvoir’s later works was Sartre’s adopted daughter, Arlette
El Kaïm-Sartre.

To cope with the loss of Sartre, Simone began writing Adieux:
A Farewell to Sartre in 1981. The work was published in 1985, a year before Simone’s death. While the work was extremely frank and open, it was also as factual and unemotional as an academic report. Critics complained the work was “cold.” Considering the complex relationship between the two, maybe this “cold” approach was necessary for Simone, who had certainly been hurt by Sartre many times — while she also conducted relationships with others.

In 1983, Lettres au Castor was published in France. This was a collection of letters from Sartre to de Beauvoir. The letters reveal much of his complex love for Simone and his need for attention and approval from others.

On 14 April 1986, Simone died. Her death followed a long
illness, apparently complicated by her drinking.

Since the death of Sartre and de Beauvoir, a lot of information
has surfaced regarding their personal relationship and their intellectual
dependence upon each other. While this is further addressed in the commentaries
that follow, it is also an important part of their biographies. It is quite
probably that Sartre wanted and needed to be “the star” within his circle.
Simone understood this, and as a result did the very thing she advised
women not to do: she let a man take credit for her efforts.

Since 1986, Beauvoir’s letters and journals have been published, shining
new light on the most interesting intellectual relationship of the 20th
century. Included in this material is new evidence of the influence she
exercised on Sartre’s work, and influence she denied during her lifetime.
It has become clear that the woman who changed the course of feminism
also plays a pivotal role in the development of existentialist morality.
During her lifetime and for many years after, Beauvoir was described
merely as a companion to Sartre. Only recently is her unique contribution
gaining the recognition it deserves.
— On de Beauvoir; Scholz, p. 18

Chronology

1908 January 9	Born in Paris, France.
1910	Younger sister Hélène born.
1913	Begins school at Cours Désir.
circa 1917	Befriends Elizabeth LeCoin, “Zaza.”
1924	Baccalaureate in literature and Latin.
1925	Baccalaureate in philosophy and mathematics.
1925	Enrolls at the Institut Sainte-Marie for Latin and literature studies. Also enrolls at the Institut Catholique for mathematics.
1926	Passes certification exams in Latin, literature, and mathematics.
1927	Passes certification exam in philosophy.
1927–1928	Teaching assistant in philosophy at the Institut Sainte-Marie.
1928	Completes licence-ès-Lettres at the Sorbonne.
1929	Meets Jean-Paul Sartre. He places first on the agrégation, she places second. Granted, he failed an earlier exam and it is her first.
1929	Zaza dies.
1929	Receives degree in philosophy from the Sorbonne. Beauvoir is the youngest person ever in France to pass the agregation.
1931	Travels to Spain, her first trip beyond France.
1931	Sartre proposes marriage; Beauvoir refuses.
1933	Travels to London and Italy.
1933	Befriends Olga Kosakiewicz.
1934	Travels to Germany and Austria, visiting Sartre in Berlin.
1937	Contracts pneumonia.
1937	Collapse of relationship with Olga, relationship with Jacques-Laurent Bost begins.
1941	Georges de Beauvoir dies.
1943	Suspended from teaching.
1944 July	Escapes from Paris with Sartre.
1944 August 11	Returns to Paris during the Liberation.
1945	Le Sang des autres published and Les Bouches inutiles premieres.
1945	Co-founds the magazine Les Temps Modernes. Remains on editorial board until her death.
1946	Tous les hommes sont mortels published.
1947 January	Travels to the United States, where she meets Nelson Algren. She does not return to Europe until May.
1948	Travels with Nelson Algren in the United States, Mexico, and Central America.
1949	Algren travels to Paris. Simone and Nelson travel to Italy and North Africa.
1951	Ends relationship with Nelson Algren while visiting him in the United States.
1952	Begins relationship with Claude Lanzmann.
1955	Attends Helsinki peace conference.
1955	First trip to the Soviet Union and China.
1958	Relationship with Lanzmann ends.
1960	Travels to Cuba.
1960	Nelson Algren visits Paris and the friends travel together.
1963	Françoise de Beauvoir dies.
1967	Travels to Egypt and Israel.
1971	Signs “feminist manifesto” supporting access to abortion.
1974	Selected as president of the League of Women’s Rights.
1980 April 15	Jean-Paul Sartre dies.
1983	Last visit to the United States.
1983	Awarded the Sonning Prize by Danish government. Uses prize money to travel incognito in the United States.
1984	The Second Sex television documentary premieres.
1986 April 14	Dies.

 

Works

• She Came to Stay, Novel: 1943 (English 1949) [Amazon]
• The Blood of
  Others, Novel: 1945 [Amazon]
• All Men are Mortal, Novel: 1946 [Amazon]
• The Second Sex, Essay: 1949 (English 1953) [Amazon]
• The Mandarins, Novel: 1954 (English 1955,1956) [Amazon]
• Memoirs of a Dutiful
  Daughter, Autobiography: 1958 [Amazon]
• The Prime of Life, Autobiography: 1960 [Amazon]
• The Force of Circumstance, Autobiography: 1963 [Amazon]
• A Very Easy Death, Biography: 1964 [Amazon]
• The Coming of Age, Biography: 1970 [Amazon]
• All Said and Done, Biography: 1972 [Amazon]
• Adieux, Biography: 1981 [Amazon]

Commentaries

Though Jean-Paul Sartre considered himself her mentor, de Beauvoir’s writings often feature a better structure and consistency than those of her friend. Actually, one of the more troubling aspects of de Beauvoir’s life is her absolute devotion to Sartre, a devotion beyond explanation. She consistently referred to herself as “Sartre’s disciple.”

x

But now, fueled by the discovery of previously unpublished diaries and
correspondence, a growing group of philosophers and Beauvoir scholars
declare that she deserves the rarefied title of philosopher herself.
Some even argue that she was the prime influence on Sartre. In the process,
they are helping to reverse the slide Beauvoir’s reputation took a decade
ago after some of the less-than-noble details of her relationship with
Sartre were published.
– “Simone de Beauvoir’s Posthumous Rising Star,” New
York Times; Cohen, Patricia; 26 September 1998

x

Philosophy professor Margaret Simons, the director of
women’s studies at Southern Illinois University, is among the scholars
defending de Beauvoir’s position as a major figure in twentieth century
philosophy.

x

For Ms. Simons, the proof of Beauvoir’s originality lies in some pages
from her unpublished diary. In a passage written on July 10, 1927, when
she was a 19-year-old philosophy student at the Sorbonne, two years before
she met Sartre, Beauvoir wrote: “I must rework my philosophical ideas
[…] go deeper into the problems that have appealed to me […] The
theme is almost always this opposition of self and other that I felt
at beginning to live.”
– New York Times; 26 September 1998

x

Edward and Kate Fullbrook, British scholars, make the most ambitious
and controversial claim of all in their new book, Simone de Beauvoir:
A Critical Introduction, (Polity Press, 1998): “Beauvoir, and not Sartre, was the intellectual force behind some of the key ideas which characterized French existentialism in its most influential phase.”

Using Sartre’s wartime diaries and letters from Beauvoir, the Fullbrooks
discovered that Sartre had read an early manuscript of Beauvoir’s philosophical
novel L’Invitee (She
Came to Stay) before he started writing Being
and Nothingness, not after, as had previously been believed. The Fullbrooks conclude that Beauvoir’s ideas in L’Invitee about relations between people, the body, as well as the temptation to deceive oneself, or “bad faith,” were not simply an application of Sartre’s ideas, but the reverse: the source of his own work.
– New York Times; 26 September 1998

x

The Second Sex (Le Deuxième Sexe, 1949; English 1953, 2010)

English Translation

x

As translation contretemps go, the one surrounding French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir (1908-86) and her foundational work of modern feminism, Le Deuxième Sexe, first published in two volumes in French in 1949, remains one of the most tempestuous and fascinating. For decades, Beauvoir scholars in the English-speaking world bemoaned, attacked, and sought to replace the widely used 1953 translation by H. M. Parshley (1884-1953), a zoologist at Smith College who knew little philosophy or existentialism, had never translated a book from French, and relied mainly on his undergraduate grasp of the language. A few years back, they succeeded in getting the rights holders, Gallimard in France and Alfred A. Knopf and Vintage in the English-speaking world, to commission a new translation. Now that second version has appeared from Knopf (The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir, “A New Translation of the Landmark Classic by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier,” with an introduction by Judith Thurman, “Complete and Unabridged for the First Time”).
— Carlin Romano, The Chronicle of Higher Education; 20 June 2010

.

The Blood of Others

My personal favorite novel by de Beauvoir is The
Blood of Others. It is an exploration of the thoughts of a leader, caught in the chaos of World War II. Some people confuse this book for autobiography, which it is not. Still, the characters are drawn upon those she knew, especially Sartre.

Each of us is responsible for everything and to every human being.
– Epigraph; Blood of Others

The
Blood of Others was de Beauvoir’s second major fictional work. It is marked by an experimental structure, linking narrative styles. This approach establishes a rhythm for the reader and manages to become a part of the novel’s theme.

The thoughts of individuals merge with an omniscient
narrative and then into dialogue. In odd chapters, the third-person limited
style is adopted. The changes in point-of-view reflect the effect one person’s
ideas can have on a group. Also, this technique is used to illustrate the
ineffectiveness of an individual in certain circumstances.

Chapter 5 of The
Blood of Others is marked by the discussion of an abortion, accompanied by an exploration of friendship, loyalty, and love. The chapter expands upon the relationship between Jean and Helene, two individuals fighting to understand the chaos around them and within themselves.

Striking in structure, the ending of this chapter contradicts
the beginning, reinforcing the contradictions embodied by the war in Europe,
the simple absurdity of life, and the confusion people will always encounter
when trying to understand their own emotions and those of others. As the
chapter opens, it appears that Jean loves Helene, but refuses to accept
this attachment.

My only love. Is it really you? Can I still say: “You are there?”
– The
Blood of Others; de Beauvoir, p. 110

The end of the chapter presents a different possibility — that Jean is
merely a friend or only a loyal companion.

“I need you because I love you,” I said. You were in my arms, and my
heart was heavy on account of those cowardly festive echoes and because
I was lying to you.
– The
Blood of Others; de Beauvoir, p. 160

The reader can never be certain how Jean feels because
Jean does not know how he feels. de Beauvoir uses sudden changes in narrative
to depict this confusion. As narrator, Jean changes tenses, pronouns, and
even narrative styles, An example of this tendency can be found in the
opening paragraph, which is fairly long. All but two references to Helene
use the pronoun “you” as if she were reading the text. Early in the paragraph
Helene is “she” and “her.” Students of the text might explore this transition
in pronoun usage.

Throughout the novel, de Beauvoir advances the story
suddenly, without accounting for the missing time. Consider real human
memory. Jean, as narrator, is not likely to either recall or consider every
passing moment. Selective memory might be attributed to the stress around
him, as well.

Jean’s recollection of his call to the abortionist illustrates
how time passes in the human memory. Jean seems to recall that the abortionist
arrived immediately after he called her. We know that people do not appear
at doors magically, but the time between the call and the arrival are not
significant to Jean. Jean only recalls those events that affect others.
All other time is non-existent to Jean.

I consider it important that de Beauvoir accused Jean-Paul
Sartre of the same bias — recalling only his actions and results, nothing outside of his own vision. Jean and Jean-Paul are well-meaning egotists.

When reading the novel, note the interjected thoughts
of Jean, appearing in italics inline with his narrative. Italicized thoughts
represent Jean’s opinion of his own character. While appearing in the order
in which Jeans recalls them, these thoughts do not relate to chronological
events.

Based upon the narrative, Jean lives in the past, worried
that the past will repeat itself. He has every right to be concerned with
the fates of other people, but he is obsessed with the absurdity of his
own existence. Jean is troubled that his life, or death, will affect others.
He is continually considering the fate of others, whom he commands in the
underground. As a rebel leader, he asks others to die for his beliefs.
Hence, the title of the book reflects a sense of guilt:

It is easy to pay with the blood of others.
– The
Blood of Others; de Beauvoir, p. 157

Jean, due to his own actions, contributes to the deaths
of others who chose to follow him. Jean does not yet accept that he alone
is not responsible for everyone in his company. People select their own
paths, even if they work collectively.

Autobiographies

Simone de Beauvoir spent much of her time writing about
her own experiences.

– 1958 Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, covered life until 1920s. (( sold
very well ))

– The Prime of Life, 1960

– Force of Circumstance, 1963

– A Very Easy Death, 1964, about mother’s death

Quotes

In order for the artist to have a world to express he
must first be situated in this world, oppressed or oppressing, resigned
or rebellious, a man among men. The Ethics of Ambiguity, ch. 1 (1948)

To make oneself an object, to make oneself passive, is
a very different thing from being a passive object. The Second Sex, book 2, part 4, ch. 3 (1953)

Bibliography

Bair, Deirdre; Simone de Beauvoir:
A Biography (New York: Summit Books, 1990) [Amazon]

Beauvoir, Simone de; The
Blood of Others (New York: Pantheon, Random House, 1948)

Beauvoir, Simone de; Adieux (New York: Pantheon, Random House, 1981, 1984) [Amazon]

Beauvoir, Simone de and Algren, Nelson; A Transatlantic
Love Affair: Letters to Nelson Algren (New York: The New Press, 1998)

Brosman, Catherine Savage; Simone
de Beauvoir Revisited (Boston: Twayne, G. K. Hall, 1991)

Cohen-Solal, Annie; Sartre: A Life (New York: Pantheon, Random House, 1985, 1987)

Fallaize, Elizabeth; Simone de Beauvoir:
A Critical Reader (New York: Routledge, 1998) ISBN: 0-415-14703-4 [Amazon.com]

Hayman, Ronald; Sartre: A Biography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987)

Lévy, Bernard Henri; Sartre: The Philosopher of the
Twentieth Century (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press/Blackwelll, 2004)

Romano, Carlin; “The Second ‘Second Sex,’” The Chronicle of Higher
Education (20 June 2010)

Rowley, Hazel; Tête-À-Tête: Simone
de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre (New York: HarperCollins, 2005)

Scholz, Sally; On de Beauvoir (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 2000) ISBN: 0-534-57603-6 [Amazon.com]

Periodicals

“Simone de Beauvoir’s Posthumous Rising Star,” New
York Times, Cohen, Patricia; 26 September 1998