Simone de Beauvoir "Letters to Sartre" (Vintage Classics)
Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (1908-1986), was a French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist and social theorist, who was closely associated with Jean-Paul Sartre and Existentialism.
These letters were published posthumously in 1990. The editor wrote in his Introduction, “the publication of her correspondence… demonstrated the radical incompatibility of her and Sartre’s whole conception of free human relations… with the somewhat rose-tinted, soft-edged public image she had herself at times helped to create… What provoked the outraged reaction of so many to the posthumous publication of these letters? At least three strands converged here. First, traditional sexism… Secondly… ideological Reaction: the posturing of intellectual yuppiedom… More significant was a third strand made up of former of still-would-be sympathizers, who now felt De Beauvoir had revealed herself in her letters to be dismayingly OTHER than the idealized image of her they had so long been nurturing…De Beauvoir’s letters to Sartre … are love letters … and they are concurrently the unsparing account of those other---‘contingent’---loves allowed for in her pact with Sartre… De Beauvoir herself is a validly heroic figure… [who] produced a work which stands and will stand as the baseline of all aspirations for equality between the sexes in the modern world.” (Pg. vii-ix)
Those looking for philosophical sophistication in these letters will mostly go away disappointed; but for those wanting insight into De Beauvoir’s mind and personality, and for details of her relationship with Sartre---as well as with various other lovers (female and male)---this collection will be a “page-turner.”
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