New Releases by Simone de Beauvoir

Mit der unerschrockenen Freimütigkeit, die ihre Erinnerungsbücher auszeichnet, hält Simone de Beauvoir Rückschau auf ein Stück Lebens- und Zeitgeschichte: auf die Sechzigerjahre. Und aus der nüchternen Erkenntnis heraus, dass die Möglichkeit neuer Pläne nun begrenzt ist, zieht sie Bilanz. Ihre Erinnerungen legen Zeugnis ab von einem lebenslangen Kampf gegen gesellschaftliche Tabus, für Wahrheit und Gerechtigkeit.

«Så nå er det avskjedsseremoni?» sa Sartre, da vi tok farvel for en måned på begynnelsen av sommeren. Jeg ante allerede hvilken betydning disse ordene en gang kom til å få. Sereu00admonien varte i ti år, og det er disse ti årene jeg forteller om i denne boka.

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.

A Rouen, in quella Normandia asfittica su cui aleggia il fantasma letterario di Emma Bovary, Pierre e Françoise, raffinati intellettuali parigini, conoscono Xavière, una ragazzetta per la quale entrambi provano un morboso attaccamento. Sono gli anni a cavallo tra i Trenta e i Quaranta del Novecento, la Francia è sull''orlo della guerra e dell''occupazione, l''ultimo scampolo di leggerezza, forse, prima che il conflitto segni un''intera generazione. In questo clima sospeso, la giovane è "invitata" a entrare nella coppia, e presto diventa il fulcro di un delicatissimo ménage à trois: inesperta, capricciosissima, malinconica e irascibile, sconvolgerà gli equilibri dei suoi due mentori, trascinandoli in un valzer di ingenuità e cinismo, fino a un tragico finale. Ricchissimo di echi autobiografici, L''invitata (1943) è il primo romanzo di Simone de Beauvoir: il ritratto di un groviglio affettivo fatto di solitudini e ossessioni, ma soprattutto di una ricerca di senso che va ben oltre la riflessione - pur acutissima - sui possibili modelli di coppia e d''amore. Il libro infatti - sostiene Simona Munari nella sua introduzione - «determina nel pensiero di de Beauvoir la scoperta e l''elaborazione della dimensione sociale e politica del destino umano, ed è l''inizio acerbo di un cammino filosofico e di una vita pubblica alla quale invano, ripetutamente, si è cercato di applicare categorie».

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.

When Andrée joins her school, Sylvie is immediately fascinated. Andrée is small for her age but walks with the confidence of an adult. The girls become close. They talk for hours about equality, justice, war and religion; they lose respect for their teachers; they build a world of their own. But as the girls grow into young women, the pressures of society mount, threatening everything. This novel was never published in Simone de Beauvoir''s lifetime. It tells the story of the real-life friendship that shaped one of the most important thinkers and feminists of the twentieth century. ''Slim, elegant, achingly tragic and unaffectedly lovely in its evocation of the closeness between girls - and the pressures that sunder them'' Spectator VINTAGE FRENCH CLASSICS - five masterpieces of French fiction in gorgeous new gift editions. TRANSLATED BY LAUREN ELKIN - INTRODUCED BY DEBORAH LEVY

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.

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. El segundo sexo es considerado hoy la "Biblia del feminismo", la obra de referencia, especialmente de la corriente denominada "feminismo de la igualdad". No sólo es considerado uno de los libros más relevantes del siglo XX, sino que tras su publicación fue un rotundo éxito de ventas. El segundo sexo fue escrito en 1949 por Simone de Beauvoir, quien comenzó a prepararlo cuando reflexionó, a propuesta de Jean-Paul Sartre, sobre lo que había significado para ella el ser mujer. Esta idea la llevaría a investigar acerca de la situación de las mujeres a lo largo de la historia y a escribir 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 su tema desde los puntos de vista de la psicología, la historia, la antropología, la biología, la reproducción y las relaciones afectivo-sexuales. La teoría principal que sostiene Beauvoir es que la mujer, o más exactamente lo que entendemos por "mujer" (coqueta, frívola, caprichosa, salvaje, 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, su principal tarea es reconquistar su propia identidad específica y desde sus propios criterios. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION Vital and groundbreaking, this is one of feminism’s founding works. It inquires and examines the life of one half of humanity by using existentialist concepts. The Second Sex today is considered the "Bible of feminism", the most important work of reference, especially for the "feminism for equality" movement. Seventy years after its initial publication, The Second Sex is still as eye-opening and pertinent as ever and is considered one of the most important books of the twentieth century. Simone de Beauvoir began to write it in 1949 when she reflected, on Jean-Paul Sartre''s proposal, on what it meant for her to be a woman. This idea would lead her to explore and study about women’s roles throughout history and to write this extensive essay that examines how women were perceived, what situations they live through, and how we can help them improve their lives and increase their freedoms. Beauvoir’s main theory is that women, or what we understand by "women" (flirtatious, frivolous, erratic, wild, etc.) is a cultural product that has been fabricated by society. Women have always defined themselves with respect to something: as a mother, as a wife, as a daughter, or sister . . . So, her main task should now be to regain her own identity by making up her own principles and standards.

DET ANDET KØN er et hovedværk i kvindefrigørelsens historie, der giver anledning til diskussion den dag i dag. Til både mænd og kvinder, der vil blive klogere på relationen mellem kønnene. I DET ANDET KØN beskriver Simone de Beauvoir flere århundreders syn på kvinder i biologien, psykoanalysen, litteraturen, religionen og filosofien for at påvise, hvordan meget af det, man i 1949 anså for kendsgerninger, blot var myter. ”Man fødes ikke som kvinde, man bliver det”, skriver Simone de Beauvoir – og skildrer bedre end nogen anden den kulturelle arv, der stadig skaber ulighed i dag. DET ANDET KØN vakte begejstring og skandale, da den udkom i 1949 – og blev bl.a. blev fordømt af paven. Simone de Beauvoirs filosofiske hovedværk har 70 års-jubilæum i 2019. Udkommer nu i en ny og revideret udgave – inklusive et "nyt" kapitel, der ikke tidligere har været udgivet på dansk. Første bind indeholder: Del 1: Skæbne Kapitel 1: De biologiske forudsætninger Kapitel 2: Det psykoanalytiske synspunkt Kapitel 3: Den historiske materialismes synspunkt Del 2: Historie Kapitel 1 Kapitel 2 Kapitel 3 Kapitel 4 Kapitel 5 Del 3: Myter Kapitel 1 Kapitel 2 I. Montherlant eller væmmelsens brød II. D. H. Lawrence eller det falliske hovmod III. Claudel og herrens tjenerinde IV. Breton eller poesien V. Stendhal eller den eventyrlige sandhed VI. Kapitel 3

“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.

A Simone de Beauvoir se la conoce sobre todo por haber sido la gran teórica del feminismo del siglo XX, pero su amplia obra trata otros muchos temas: el existencialismo, la responsabilidad individual o la libertad sexual. Leyendo Memorias de una joven formal, es difícil concebir que esa niña, nacida en una familia burguesa y educada de un modo clasista, llegara a convertirse en el icono filosófico que llegó a ser.Beauvoir comenzó su existencia en un ambiente de tradición decimonónica, de un cristianismo rancio, en el papel del hombre y la mujer en el seno familiar estaban claramente delimitados. Su madre era joven y controladora. Debía obtener constantemente información acerca de las salidas, de las amistades y de las lecturas de la niña, algo que seguía sucediendo cuando la futura autora de El segundo sexo comenzó a ir a la Universidad, hasta el punto de que debió reunir valor para pedirle, junto a su hermana, que dejara de leer sus cartas. Su padre era un hombre peculiar, con una ideología que podríamos calificar casi de fascista, destinada ante todo a justificar los privilegios de ciertas familias, aunque sufrieran una decadencia económica, como era su caso. Paradójicamente, esta situación ayudó a Beauvoir a conseguir cierta independencia, puesto que la falta de medios alejó de su vida la sombra de un matrimonio concertado, algo muy común todavía en aquella época.

"Si l''on nous offrait l''immortalité sur la terre, qui est-ce qui accepterait ce triste présent ? demande Jean-Jacques Rousseau dans l''Émile. Ce livre est l''histoire d''un homme qui a accepté."

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

Die Lebensgefährtin Jean-Paul Sartres schildert in diesen Aufzeichnungen ihre Beziehungen und ihre zahlreichen Reisen mit Sartre, die Wandlungen und Wendungen von Sartres Verhältnis zum Kommunismus, ihre Liebesaffären, vor allem ihre Liaison mit dem amerikanischen Romancier Nelson Algren, und ihre Freundschaften und Zerwürfnisse mit berühmten Zeitgenossen wie Camus, Koestler, Giacometti, Merleau-Ponty und Raymond Aron. Ein faszinierendes Zeitdokument über das Leben europäischer Intellektueller des 20. Jahrhunderts.

Eine glänzende, intime Reportage über das geistige Amerika. Eine Reise durch den gewaltigen Kontinent, kreuz und quer, im Pullman, im Greyhound, im Flugzeug, im Auto, hat die berühmte französische Autorin Simone de Beauvoir gerade mit der Schicht des amerikanischen Volks in Gespräch und Verbindung gebracht, von der wir wenig hören, nämlich der amerikanischen Intelligenz. Vor anderen Amerikabüchern zeichnet sich das Buch daher aus, weil hier einmal nicht der Primat der Politik, Wirtschaft oder Technik gefeiert, nicht die Schlagwortwelt der Trapper, der letzten Indianer, der Hollywoodstars und Ölmagnaten aufgetischt wird, sondern weil eine überzeugte europäische Individualistin freimütig mit Journalisten, Gelehrten, Künstlern und Studenten Probleme der Neuen und Alten Welt diskutiert.

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

Includes pages that contain the key passages of the book that changed perceptions of women forever.

Una crisi coniugale o familiare costringe tre donne a mettere in discussione la propria vita e il proprio ruolo di madri e di mogli: da questa confessione a piú voci nasce una riflessione lucida e disincantata sull''universo femminile.

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.

«Ich habe in diesem Buch drei Frauen sprechen lassen, die sich aus ausweglosen Situationen mit Worten zu befreien versuchten: Diese Geschichten haben keine Moral; Lektionen werden nicht erteilt; ich wollte etwas ganz anderes. Man lebt nur ein Leben, aber durch intensives Mit-Erleben, Nach-Erleben gelingt es einem manchmal, in die Haut eines anderen zu schlüpfen. Ich wollte meine Leser an den Erfahrungen teilnehmen lassen, die ich auf diese Weise gemacht habe. Ich fühle mich mit allen Frauen verbunden, die ihr Leben auf sich nehmen und für ein glückliches Leben kämpfen.»

»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?

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.