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Gould Translation Prize A novel by the iconic Simone de Beauvoir of an intense and vivid girlhood friendship that, unpublished in her lifetime, displays “Beauvoir''s genius as a fiction writer”(Wall Street Journal) From the moment Sylvie and Andrée meet in their Parisian day school,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.

''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.

“Like man, woman is a human being.” When The Second Sex was first published in Paris in 1949—groundbreaking, risqué, brilliantly written and strikingly modern—it provoked both outrage and inspiration. The Independent Woman contains three key chapters of Beauvoir’s masterwork, which illuminate the feminine condition and identify practical social reforms for gender equality. It captures the essence of the spirited manifesto that switched on light bulbs in the heads of a generation of women and continues to exert profound influence on feminists today.

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.

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.

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

"- Qu''est-ce qui ne va pas ? - Rien, tout va très bien, dis-je d''un ton dégagé. - Allons ! Allons ! je sais ce que ça veut dire quand tu prends ta voix de dame du monde, dit Robert. Je suis sûr qu''en ce moment ça tourne dur dans cette tête. Combien de verres de punch as-tu bus ? - Sûrement moins que vous, et le punch n''y est pour rien. - Ah ! tu avoues ! dit Robert d''un ton triomphant ; il y a quelque chose et le punch n''y est pour rien ; quoi donc ? - C''est Scriassine, dis-je en riant ; il m''a expliqué que les intellectuels français étaient foutus."

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

A Very Easy Death has long been considered one of Simone de Beauvoir’s masterpieces. The profoundly moving, day-by-day recounting of her mother’s death “shows the power of compassion when it is allied with acute intelligence” (The Sunday Telegraph). Powerful, touching, and sometimes shocking, this is an end-of-life account that no reader is likely to forget. Translated by Patrick O''Brian

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.

"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.

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.

Probably de Beauvoir''s strangest and most compelling novel, this is the captivating story of a beautiful young actress who revives a downcast stranger at a French resort. He becomes thoroughly attached to her and confides a terrifying truth: he is immortal. But having been resuscitated into enjoying life again, he soon starts breaking free from her grasp and all notions of mortality.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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).

THE SECOND SEX is a hymn to human freedom and a classic of the existentialist movement. It also has claims to be the most important s ingle book in the history of feminism. In the forty years since its publication De Beauvoir''s then revolutionary thesis - that the subordination of women is not a fact of nature but the product of social conditioning has become part of our everyday thinking.

Autobiography of French author Simone deBeauvoir.