- Beauvoir, Simone de
- (1908-1986)writerone of the most important writers of her generation, simone de Beauvoir was born in Paris, where she was to spend most of her life. she was educated at the École Normale Supérieure and at the sorbonne, where she received a degree in philosophy (1929). She taught philosophy for a time but left that profession in 1943, when her first novel, L'Invitée, was published. De Beauvoir then dedicated herself to the writing of essays (Pyrrhus et Cinéas, 1944; Pour une morale de l'ambiguïté, 1947) and novels (Le Sang des autres, 1945; Tous les hommes sont mortels, 1946). Her life and her thought were linked to those of jean-paul sartre, whom she met while at the sorbonne. They resided in Paris during World War II (1939-45) and were active in the resistance. At that time, they refined the principles of existentialism. They also collaborated on the political and literary journal Les temps modernes and traveled through Europe and the United States. In 1949, Le Deuxième Sexe, de Beauvoir's existential analysis of women's status and situation in modern society, was published. Drawn from her personal experience, it was extremely influential in the formation of feminist theory. A following work, the novel Les Mandarins, received the prestigious Prix Goncourt. De Beauvoir continued in the autobiographical genre with Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée (1958); Tout compte fait (1972); and La Cérémonie des adieux (1981), her farewell to Sartre. In her later years, she also wrote essays on age, including Une Mort tres douce (1954), which she dedicated to her mother, and La vieillesse (1970), a critique of the poor treatment given to older people in Western societies. After de Beau-voir's death, her autobiographic Journal de guerre (1990) and Lettres à Sartre (1990) were published. In her philosophic writings, de Beauvoir sought above all to create "significant" works, to elucidate the relationship between men and women, and, through an exploration of her own experiences, achieve a definition of authentic morality applicable to the modern world and society.
France. A reference guide from Renaissance to the Present . 1884.