Simone de Beauvoir, a life of freedom

In this, the first major study of Simone de Beauvoir, Carol Ascher traces the course of de Beauvoir’s personal and intellectual achievements as well as her deep, lasting relationships with Sartre and others. Unlike many conventional biographers who approach their subjects with impersonal detachment, Ascher actively explores how de Beauvoir’s political and philosophical ideas have influenced much of contemporary thought. She moves with deftness through the various layers of de Beauvoir’s words and acts to uncover the woman behind the public and literary figure. Readers who have come away from de Beauvoir’s memoirs with a gnawing sense that the whole story remains to be told will turn to this book. The woman portrayed here is a courageous, energetic one, full of contradictions and ambiguities, but always daring in her thinking. Thanks to Ascher’s brave and innovative approach, this Simone de Beauvoir is strikingly real.