Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir (January 9, 1908 – April 14, 1986) was a French author, philosopher, and feminist.

Other works

In 1943, de Beauvoir published L'Invitée (She Came to Stay, 1943), a fictionalized chronicle of the relationship she formed with one of her students, Olga Kosakiewicz, while she was teaching in Rouen during the early 30s. The novel also delves into the complex relationship between de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, as well as how their relationship was affected by the inclusion of Kosakiewicz.

Related Topics:
Olga Kosakiewicz - Jean-Paul Sartre

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At the end of World War II, de Beauvoir joined Sartre as an editor at Les Temps Modernes, a political journal Sartre founded along with the likes of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Aside from her editorship, de Beauvoir used Les Temps Modernes as a platform for her introducing various works and remained an editor until her death.

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Although the work receives little attention, Pour Une Morale de L'ambiguïté (The Ethics of Ambiguity, 1947) is perhaps the single best point of entry into French existentialism. The simplicity of the work is a marvel in and of itself, as de Beauvoir reduces the gnashing of teeth that many associate with reading Sartre's overly-analytical Being and Nothingness to a few pages of comparatively light reading.

Related Topics:
French - Existentialism - Being and Nothingness

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It should be quite obvious that de Beauvoir was amazingly agile as an author; she was equally adept as a philosopher, novelist, political theorist, essayist, as well as biographer. After her death, de Beauvoir has garnered extreme praise, not only due to the growing acceptance of feminism in academia, but also as we have become more aware of the influence she had on Sartre's masterpiece, Being and Nothingness. She is without question one of the greatest French thinkers throughout history.

Related Topics:
Feminism - Being and Nothingness

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Other major works: Les Mandarins (The Mandarins,1954); Memoires d'une jeune fille rangée (Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, 1958).

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'The Ethics of Ambiguity' by Simone de Beauvoir (Free Online Version - English Translation).

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