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He was France's best-known philosopher & chief arbiter of intellectual fashions; she was the most influential forerunner of today's feminist movement. Using newly available documentary evidence from diaries & letters, the authors shed astonishing new light on who the dominant partner was in this relationship. The book provides decisive insights into the lives, literature, & ideas of these major figures on the modern cultural scene & raises profound questions about the psychological needs, sexual politics, & bad faith that led Beauvoir & Sartre to give misleading accounts of the inner workings of their relationship. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Parallel lives
The surprise of this book is the extensive myth-making engaged in by Simone de Beauvoir in regard to the founding of French existentialist theory.It would seem that as school examiners noted, she was the better philosopher of the two, and it was she who devised existentialism in her novel SHE CAME TO STAY.

The cat was out of the bag, so to speak, when the war journals of Sartre were published just after his death.Simone de Beauvoir did some fast jockeying of dates which was not totally convincing to her biographer, these authors write.It would seem that she had gotten so used to the falsities presented to the world she could not bear to have the truth revealed, even when the truth was complimentary to her.

It is necessary to understand how revolutionary she was when she began writing in the 1930's and took the position that for the sake of freedom she must refuse the offer of marriage given to her by Sartre.It turns out that he was a very good at articulating the philosophy the couple devised. False stories did more than cover up de Beauvoir's evident orginality, they also covered up her sexual adventures which could have been misconstrued by the public in general.

The book is a delight.The writers give full praise to previous biographers.It is comforting to learn some truths since the myth-making did strike this reader as far-fetched.Nonetheless, one is left with a nagging sense that surely if philosophers fail to tell the truth, should not this mean that their worksbe taken less seriously.

Fullbrooks' False Claims
"Political correctness" has made it difficult to challenge even that part of the thesis of the Fullbrooks' book, Simone De Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre: The Remaking of a Twentieth-Century Legend, which relates strictly to the history of philosophy. Nevertheless, challenged it must be, and has been, contrary to the claims of Sharon Wright in her online review. What she calls their "impressive scholarship" has come under serious and precise attack from a number of quarters. What follows is simply the lead-in to an article that I myself published as early as 1995 ("Sartre and Beauvoir: Refining rather than 'Remaking' the Legend", Simone de Beauvoir Studies, vol. 12, 1995, pp. 91-99); the rest of that article goes on to justify my claims in detail.

"The crux of their argument is the assertion that Sartre's reading of the draft of L'Invitée during his leave in Paris between 4 and 16 February 1940 was what provided him with all or most of the crucial ideas that were to form the substance of L'Etre et le Néant. [...]Now, there are least four MAJOR flaws in this line of argument: (i) we do not know with certainty exactly what was in the parts of L'Invitée that Sartre read in February 1940; (ii) the argument ignores completely Beauvoir's acquaintance with drafts of Sartre's L'Age de raison, and also seriously underplays the philosophical content of those of Sartre's Carnets de la drôle de guerre that Beauvoir had read before February 1940; (iii) we DO know that Sartre had been working since the mid-1930s on the ideas that were to be central to L'Etre et le Néant; (iv) the momentous philosophical system that the Fullbrooks ascribe to Beauvoir is simply not to be found in even the final version of L'Invitée."

Since, as Sharon Wright points out, the Fullbrooks were far from the first to argue for the philosophical originality of Beauvoir, those of their claims that are demonstrably false have done nothing to promote this case. Rather, they have tended to obscure, and direct attention away from, many of the complex and fascinating questions concerning the relationship between the thought of Beauvoir and that of Sartre. What is more, some of the sensationalist, journalistic features of the style of the book have served to inflame sensitive issues that require particularly cool, rational treatment.

Seven Years After
No book on Beauvoir or Sartre has led to so much discussion, provoked such consternation or so changed the way we see these cultural icons as has Kate and Edward Fullbrook's "Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre: TheRemaking of a Twentieth-Century Legend".The basis of thisrecently republished book (which I had the pleasure of rereading last week)is disarmingly simple.The Fullbrooks checked out Beauvoir's and Sartre'snewly-available letters and diaries and found that the traditional storythat says the Beauvoir constructed her first novel "She Cme toStay" on the basis of philosophical ideas she took from Sartre's essay"Being and Nothingness" is the exact opposite of the truth. Sartre only began, the Fullbrooks carefully document, to compile notes horhis philosophical treatise after studying the second draft of Beauvoir'snovel.The Fullbrooks also, and again drawing on the letters, make thecase that it was Beauvoir's sexual promiscuity, rather than Sartre's thatinitially dictated the famous open terms of their 50-year relationship. All this radical post-patriarchal revisionism, which the Fullbrooksrefused to play down, was too much for many critcs when this book appearedin 1994.Some reviewers were apoplectic, others deeply sceptical, and the"New Yorl Times" twice ran long reviews warning their readersagainst this "feminist claptrap".But in fact theFullbrooks, in claiming philosophical originality for Beauvoir, werethemselves not so original as perhaps they and certainly their criticsimagined.Margaret Simons, Linda Singer and Sonia Kruks had previouslyargued the case for Beauvoir as an innovative philosopher and the source ofsome of Sartre's later ideas.The Fullbrooks' discoveries gave newsignificance to this prior scholarship and inspired Simons to go off insearch of Beauvoir's student diaries.(See Simons 1999)Simons'ssubsequent discoveries and the slow but continuing cultural shift away frompresuming that women are never the source of original ideas has taken awaysome of the shock value of the Fullbrooks' first book.Indeed, seven yearson and their impressive scholarship has never been seriously challanged. By now scores of Sartre scholars much have checked out the letters anddiaries and found, to their dismay, that the Fullbrooks did not make any ofit up. But although "Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre: TheRemaking of a Twentieth-Century Legend" through its success no longerenjoys the controversy it once did, it remains, with its compellingnarrative and writerly qualities, one of the best books evr written abouteither Beauvoir or Sartre.Even the "New York Times" had toadmit that it was good read.For capturing the spirit of thesetwentieth-century giants and their extraordinary relationship, this book isyet to be beaten. ... Read more

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Une pièce sur le racisme
Le problème du racisme dans le sud des Etats-Unis est traité par Sartre de manière originale. Une prostituée, Lizzie Mac Cay, se voit brusquement confrontée à un Nègre qui lui demande de lui accorder sa protection. Il est en effet poursuivi pour le meurtre d'un blanc, Thomas. Il s'avère que le Nègre n'est pas l'assassin de Thomas, et pourtant à la fois la police et la famille Clarke vont essayer d'extorquer une fausse déposition de la part de Lizzie. La brusquerie et la vulgarité dont Fred et le Sénateur Clarke traitent Lizzie et le Nègre sont révoltantes. On ne peut qu'espérer que les choses ont évolué en Amérique depuis l'époque où Sartre a écrit cette pièce de théâtre, peu après la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. ... Read more

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It is September 1938 and during a heatwave, Europe tensely awaits the outcome of the Munich conference, where they will learn if there is to be a war. In Paris, people are waiting too, among them Mathieu, Jacques and Philippe, each wrestling with their own love affairs, doubts and angsts - and none of them ready to fight. The second volume in Sartre's wartime Roads to Freedom trilogy, "The Reprieve" cuts between locations and characters to build an impressionistic collage of the hopes, fears and self-deception of an entire continent as it blinkers itself against the imminent threat of war. ... Read more

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Sartre the Genius
Covering a week in september (23-30) 1938 the novel concerns the Sudetan crisis. Everywhere people brace themselves for the inevitable war. Tensions increase when a general mobilization is called then comes news of a last ditch attempt for resolution-the infamous Munich conference. A nation celebrates a phoney peace....
The second book in Sartres 'Roads to Freedom' trilogy is an absolute masterpiece. I had no hesitation rating the first part ('Age of Reason')as 5 star stuff. 'The Reprieve' is infinitely better-and that doesn't take anything away from 'Age of Reason'.
Sartre weaves in the characters we encountered in the first book with historical figures and completely captures the tension and stress of that time. He captures the various political slants, each person is trapped by the bigger fate of world politics; each reacts differently from the upper class Phillipe who believes he is at one with the proletariat and opposes war as a pacifist, to the communists happily going to war and the bourgeoise apologists. It is superb.
This book also scores heavily on a literary front. It is lyrical, profound, enlightening and-maybe most important-gripping.It completely absorbs. Sartre uses the 'streams of conciousness' style -ie the 'James Joyce' school of writing and pulls it off with bags to spare. I've always felt that a lot of writers inspired by Joyce ended up being a lot better at being James Joyce than James Joyce was! Sartre is certainly that. If Joyces work were the Sistine Chapels foundations, Hemingway Faulkner and Sartre are the ceiling and frescos!
The style may perplex to start with as you are confronted with different people places and plots in unbroken paragraphs, but this so wonderfully gives the feeling of time-things happening at a specific time-Hitler says something whilst someone else has a drink-and each story line is so vivid the book just mesmerizes.
Sartre opposed appeasement;that inertia leads to loss of liberty and freedom and he gets his ideas accross magnificently.
Such wonderful work will always lead to the riddle that is Sartre;his political leanings; his support of dubious regimes and causes -particularily communism (a nice idea in theory;just a disaster in practice!)- that seem at odds with his writings. But nothing should detract from this superb book or the 'Roads to..' trilogy. Breathtaking stuff. ... Read more

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During the phony war, the young Sartre made use of his spare time to make a series of notes on philosophy, literature, politics, history and autobiography which anticipate the themes of his later masterpieces, and often surpass them in literary verve and directness. ... Read more

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A wonderfully human side of an ostensibly brainy guy
The main title of this book can be a little misleading, for the entries date from 1939-40, before the war in France really heated up. Sartre saw no action during this period (he was in his early 30s), but he WAS in military service on the front during the "phony war." Mostly, he had a lot of time to think and write.

Sartre worked on some of the foundations for _Being and Nothingness_ and existential theory in general, so there's some of that here, but this is a marvelously HUMAN document. As well as the sort of intellectual blasts one expects from him (Flaubert's _A Sentimental Education_ is deemed to be "clumsy, disagreeable ... utterly idiotic"), Sartre writes of his insecurities ("In relation to Gauguin, Van Gogh and Rimbaud, I have a distinct inferiority complex because they managed to destroy themselves"; "It's true, I'm not authentic. With everything that I feel, before actually feeling it I know that I'm feeling it ... I fool people: I look like a sensitive person but I'm barren ... I am nothing but pride and lucidity").

There's a lot about his love of women and burning desire for beauty -- to be IN something beautiful; and his total failure at friendships with men, save for what he termed women-men ("an extremely rare species, standing out from the rest thanks to their physical charm or sometimes beauty, and to a host of inner riches which the common run of men know nothing of ... I'm a woman-man myself, I think, for all my ugliness").

Sometimes he is flip, sounding more like he's trying out aphorisms for size ("I would condemn someone definitively for a linguistic mannerism, but not because I'd seen him murder his mother"), and sometimes simple and sincere ("A day begun with a breakfast is a lucky day"). Above all, he broods on the nature of freedom and authenticity. This is a much more accessible work than much of his fiction or polished essays. ... Read more

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A penetrating introductory discussion of Sartre's philosophy as it is illustrated in his plays and novels. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Movie
I am reading this in French class. it is ok although not great. the inconsistancies are sort of confusing but the theme is good. i like the satire in it. we are looking for a copy of the movie for VHS so if anyone knows where we could buy this to watch in class, with or without captions, that would be great. email me at moonshadow@pwshift.com if uknow. thanks

C'est simplement incroyable
By far the best book I have ever read.. I was also wondering if it has been published in English.

Need Help!
This is my all-time favorite book and was wondering if anyone has ever seen it translated in English. If you know of such a copy please contact me at exechead@aol.com/ Thanks.

C'est magnifique!
This has been my favorite book since I first read it, more than 5 years ago, and it still has a place of honor on my bedside table. Sartre's tale of Pierre and Eve is simply riveting. This is one of the mostthought-provoking books I've read - and you don't need to know a lot aboutliterature to enjoy it!!

I loved this book
I was amazed by this book, I don't care too much for most existentialist fiction, but I was riveted by this novel.As I read, I became engrossed by the characters, and was on the edge of my seat waiting for what wouldhappen to them.The message that one must commit to love and not letoutside influences impede it, is a message we here far too infrequently. Instead of a story where one must die for love, we get a story where tolive, one must love. ... Read more