Beauvoir and Sartre

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986), French philosopher and novelist, is perhaps best known as the intimate companion/friend of existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre. Over the decades, she has been a second banana, overshadowed by Sartre because of his huge literary and philosophical reputation. This international collection of scholarly essays attempts to rectify this assessment by claiming that she was a significant philosopher in her own right and that she influenced and contributed to many of Sartre's works. Editors Daigle (Brock Univ.) and Golomb (Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem) bring together 14 essays that exalt Beauvoir to a higher philosophic plane, even though she consistently said that Sartre was the philosopher, and that she was merely a writer. Contributors disagree with her self-effacing remarks. (Unbelievably, one writer even refers to her as a giant of 20th-century philosophy.) This reviewer sees the existentialist The Ethics of Ambiguity as derivative of Sartre's work. The Second Sex is Beauvoir's original feminist essay, and her voluminous autobiographies suggest, perhaps, vanity. Altogether, this feminist-inspired book assumes a very advanced knowledge of Sartre and Beauvoir. Readers should see Hazel Rowley's Tête-a-Tête (2005) for a very enjoyable account of their personal relationships. Summing Up: Recommended. Women's studies collections supporting graduate students and faculty/researchers. -Choice