Simone de Beauvoir, a French essayist and novelist, was a leading feminist and a proponent of existentialism. Her philosophical view closely resembled that of Jean Paul Sartre, a lifelong associate. The existential dilemma is the central theme of her works, but her perspective ranges from the autobiographical to the historical.Simone Lucie-Ernestine-Marie-Bertrand de Beauvoir (b. Jan. 9, 1908, Paris, France d. April 14, 1986, Paris). French writer and feminist, a member of the intellectual fellowship of philosopher-writers who have given a literary transcription to the themes of Existentialism. She is known primarily for her treatise Le Deuxième Sexe, 2 vol. (1949; The Second Sex), a scholarly and passionate plea for the abolition of what she called the myth of the "eternal feminine." This seminal work became a classic of feminist literature.
Schooled in private institutions, de Beauvoir attended the Sorbonne, where, in 1929, she passed her agrégation in philosophy and met Jean-Paul Sartre, beginning a lifelong association with him. She taught at a number of schools (1931-43) before turning to writing for her livelihood. In 1945 she and Sartre founded and began editing Le Temps modernes, a monthly review.
Her novels expound the major Existential themes, demonstrating her conception of the writer's commitment to the times. L'Invitée (1943; She Came To Stay) describes the subtle destruction of a couple's relationship brought about by a young girl's prolonged stay in their home; it also treats the difficult problem of the relationship of a conscience to "the other," each individual conscience being fundamentally a predator to another. Of her other works of fiction, perhaps the best known is Les Mandarins (1954; The Mandarins), for which she won the Prix Goncourt. It is 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 Pour une Morale de l'ambiguité (1947; The Ethics of Ambiguity); travel books on China (La Longue Marche: essai sur la Chine [1957]; The Long March) and the United States (L'Amérique au jour de jour [1948]; America Day by Day); and a number of essays, some of them book-length, the best known of which is The Second Sex.
