The Second Sex

Front Cover
Vintage, 2011 - Philosophy - 800 pages
12 Reviews
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The essential masterwork that has provoked and inspired generations of men and women. "From Eve's apple to Virginia Woolf's room of her own, Beauvoir's treatise remains an essential rallying point, urging self-sufficiency and offering the fruit of knowledge." --Vogue

This unabridged edition reinstates significant portions of the original French text that were cut in the first English translation. Vital and groundbreaking, Beauvoir's pioneering and impressive text remains as pertinent today as when it was first published, and will continue to provoke and inspire generations of men and women to come.

 

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LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Jthierer - LibraryThing

This book consists of three parts all jumbled-up together so that some of the still relevant gets missed in the "WTF did I just read." One part is a solid historical look at what the life of women ... Read full review

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - DinadansFriend - LibraryThing

A dense book in which de Beauvoir attempts to define a feminist view of the world, and to explain the differentiation of that view from the masculine. There is a lot of close reasoning, but a serious ... Read full review

All 6 reviews »

Selected pages

Contents

Introduction
3
VOLUME
17
Biological Data
21
The Psychoanalytical Point of View
49
The Point of View of Historical
62
Chapter 2
71
Chapter 3
90
Chapter 5
126
PART TWO SITUATION
437
The Married Woman
439
The Mother
524
Social Life
571
Prostitutes and Hetaeras
599
From Maturity to Old Age
619
Womans Situation and Character
638
PART THREE JUSTIFICATIONS
665

Chapter 2
159
Claudel or the Handmaiden of the Lord
237
Lived Experience
272
Introduction
279
PART ONE FORMATIVE YEARS
281
Chapter Childhood
283
The Girl
341
Sexual Initiation
383
Chapter 4
417
The Narcissist
667
The Woman in Love
683
The Mystic
709
PART FOUR TOWARD LIBERATION
719
The Independent Woman
721
Conclusion
753
Selected Sources
767
Index
771
Copyright

Other editions - View all

The Second Sex
Simone de Beauvoir
Limited preview - 2010
The Second Sex (Vintage Feminism Short Edition)
Simone de Beauvoir
Limited preview - 2015
The Second Sex
Simone De Beauvoir
Limited preview - 2012
View all »

Common terms and phrases

accept activity already animal appears authority beauty becomes beginning birth body bring called child claim complex condition considered created death defined demands dependence desire destiny dreams earth equal example existence experience expresses eyes face fact father fear feels female feminine flesh force freedom friends girl give given hands happiness heart hold human husband idea importance individual interest less living longer look lover male man's marriage married masculine means mother mystery nature never night object once organ passive period person play pleasure positive possession possible presence reality reason recognize refuses relations remains role says seeks seems seen sexual situation social society sometimes soul species thing tion transcendence tries truth turn wants whole wife woman women young

About the author (2011)

SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR was born in Paris in 1908. In 1929 she became the youngest person ever to obtain the agrégation in philosophy at the Sorbonne, placing second to Jean-Paul Sartre. She taught at lycées at Marseille and Rouen from 1931 to 1937, and in Paris from 1938 to 1943. After the war, she emerged as one of the leaders of the existentialist movement, working with Sartre on Les Temps Modernes. The author of several books, including The Mandarins (1957), which was awarded the Prix Goncourt, Beauvoir was one of the most influential thinkers of her generation. She died in 1986.

CONSTANCE BORDE and SHEILA MALOVANY-CHEVALLIER, both American, are longtime residents of France and former teachers at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris.

JUDITH THURMAN, author of Isak Dinesen and Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette, is a staff writer at The New Yorker.

Bibliographic information

QR code for The Second Sex
TitleThe Second Sex
AuthorSimone de Beauvoir
Translated byConstance Borde, Sheila Malovany-Chevallier
ContributorJudith Thurman
PublisherVintage, 2011
ISBN030727778X, 9780307277787
Length800 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Philosophy / Movements / Existentialism
Social Science / Feminism & Feminist Theory
Social Science / Gender Studies
Social Science / Women's Studies
  
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