New Releases by Simone de Beauvoir

«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.

Os adversários do existencialismo afirmam que uma filosofia da liberdade é, «a priori», incapaz de propor uma moral. Na medida em que somos livres, dizem eles, somos livres de desejar o que bem entendermos. Simone de Beauvoir propôs-se, por isso, avançar alguns princípios teóricos que validassem a possibilidade de uma moral existencialista, tarefa que Jean-Paul Sartre deixou por realizar.

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Gould Translation Prize A novel by the iconic Simone de Beauvoir of an intense and vivid girlhood friendship that, unpublished in her lifetime, displays “Beauvoir''s genius as a fiction writer”(Wall Street Journal) From the moment Sylvie and Andrée meet in their Parisian day school,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

" Quase 70 anos depois de ser escrito, chega ao Brasil o romance inédito de Simone de Beauvoir com uma história fundamental para a formação de uma das mais importantes intelectuais do século XX. Escrito em 1954, cinco anos após a publicação de O segundo sexo, As inseparáveis é o romance autobiográfico que conta a história da amizade passional que uniu Sylvie (Simone de Beauvoir) e Andrée (Élisabeth Lacoin, a Zaza). Sylvie e Andrée se conhecem aos 9 anos no colégio Desir, numa Paris em meio à Primeira Guerra Mundial. Andrée é divertida, impertinente, audaciosa; Sylvie, mais tradicional e tímida, logo se sente irremediavelmente atraída por ela. No entanto, por trás da postura rebelde, Andrée tem de lidar com uma família católica fervorosa que, com suas tradições muito rígidas e ambiente opressor, está disposta a esmagar qualquer expressão de individualidade. Juntas, elas trilham o caminho para se libertar das convenções de sua época e das expectativas asfixiantes, mas não fazem ideia do preço trágico que terão de pagar pela liberdade e pelas ambições intelectuais e existenciais. As inseparáveis relata as experiências que fundamentaram a revolta e a obra da grande filósofa francesa: sua emancipação e o antagonismo entre intelectuais e conservadores. Também retrata e denuncia uma sociedade hipócrita e fanática. Essa história catártica de Simone de Beauvoir, publicada com fotos pessoais e cartas trocadas entre as duas amigas, além de introdução de Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir, constitui um verdadeiro evento literário. “Oferecendo uma nova perspectiva sobre os primeiros anos de vida de Simone de Beauvoir, este livro sem precedentes explica como essa relação próxima e trágica moldou sua visão do sexismo e das desigualdades de gênero.” - Elle “Uma história apaixonante e trágica [...] que faz o leitor mergulhar na Paris do início do século XX e acompanhar as tribulações de duas jovens rebeldes que questionam o que se espera delas como mulheres.” - Vanity Fair “Um capítulo de formação da juventude de Simone de Beauvoir e um relacionamento fundamental que moldou sua visão sobre desigualdade de gênero e sexismo.” - New York Times “Um romance comovente e cativante sobre a amizade entre duas mulheres.” - The Guardian “A revolta contra os valores sociais conservadores.” - The Times “Teria havido uma Simone de Beauvoir sem uma Zaza?” - El País "

''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.

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.

This collection of classic titles by Beauvoir her most well know writings, The Second Sex and The Ethics Of Ambiguity as well as a biography of her life and a rare interview on her book The Second Sex. French writer and feminist, and Existentialist. She is known primarily for her treatise The Second Sex (1949), a scholarly and passionate plea for the abolition of what she called the myth of the "eternal feminine." It became a classic of feminist literature during the 1960s. Her novels expounded the major Existential themes, demonstrating her conception of the writer''s commitment to the times. She Came To Stay (1943) treats the difficult problem of the relationship of a conscience to "the other." Of her other works of fiction, perhaps the best known is The Mandarins (1954), a chronicle of the attempts of post-World War II intellectuals to leave their "mandarin" (educated elite) status and engage in political activism. She also wrote four books of philosophy, including The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947). Several volumes of her work are devoted to autobiography which constitute a telling portrait of French intellectual life from the 1930s to the 1970s. In addition to treating feminist issues, de Beauvoir was concerned with the issue of aging, which she addressed in A Very Easy Death (1964), on her mother''s death in a hospital. In 1981 she wrote A Farewell to Sartre, a painful account of Sartre''s last years. Simone de Beauvoir revealed herself as a woman of formidable courage and integrity, whose life supported her thesis: the basic options of an individual must be made on the premises of an equal vocation for man and woman founded on a common structure of their being, independent of their sexuality. Table of Contents: The Second Sex, On the publication of The Second Sex, interview The Ethics of Ambiguity, Biography

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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. Culled from sources including various American university collections, the works span decades of Beauvoir''s career. Ranging from dramatic works and literary theory to radio broadcasts, they collectively reveal fresh insights into Beauvoir''s writing process, personal life, and the honing of her philosophy. The volume begins with a new translation of the 1945 play The Useless Mouths, written in Paris during the Nazi occupation. Other pieces were discovered after Beauvoir''s death in 1986, such as the 1965 short novel "Misunderstanding in Moscow," involving an elderly French couple who confront their fears of aging. Two additional previously unknown texts include the fragmentary "Notes for a Novel," which contains the seed of what she later would call "the problem of the Other," and a lecture on postwar French theater titled Existentialist Theater. The collection notably includes the 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?" Prefaces to well-known works such as Bluebeard and Other Fairy Tales,La Bâtarde, and James Joyce in Paris: His Final Years are also available in English for the first time, alongside essays and other short articles. A landmark contribution to Beauvoir studies and French literary studies, the volume includes informative and engaging introductory essays by prominent and rising scholars. Contributors are 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.

Provocative insights into Beauvoir''s philosophical and personal development during wartime Written from September 1939 to January 1941, Simone de Beauvoir’s Wartime Diary gives English readers unabridged access to a scandalous text that threatened to overturn traditional views of Beauvoir’s life and work. Beauvoir''s clandestine affair with Jacques Bost and sexual relationships with various young women challenge the conventional picture of Beauvoir as the devoted companion of Jean-Paul Sartre. At the same time, her account of completing her novel She Came to Stay at a time when Sartre had just begun Being and Nothingness questions the traditional view of Beauvoir’s novel as merely illustrating Sartre’s philosophy. Wartime Diary also traces Beauvoir''s philosophical transformation as she broke from the prewar solipsism of She Came to Stay in favor of the postwar political engagement of The Second Sex. Beauvoir''s emerging existentialist ethics reflect the dramatic collective experiences of refugees fleeing German invasion and life under Nazi occupation. The evolution of her thought also reveals the courageous reaffirmation of her individuality in constructing a humanist ethics of freedom and solidarity. This edition also features previously unpublished material, including her musings about consciousness and order, recommended reading lists, and notes on labor unions. In providing new insights into Beauvoir’s philosophical development, the Wartime Diary promises to rewrite a crucial chapter of Western philosophy and intellectual history.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).