Simone de Beauvoir: A Biography Bair penetrates the mystique of this brilliant and often paradoxical woman, who has been called one of the great minds of the 20th century, and surely, one of the most famously unconventional figures of her generation. 16-page photographic insert.This definitive biography is based on five years of

Title	:	Simone de Beauvoir: A Biography
Author	:	Deirdre Bair
Rating	:	4.68 (471 Votes)
Asin	:	0671741802
Format Type	:	Paperback
Number of Pages	:	718 Pages
Publish Date	:	1991-08-15
Genre	:

This definitive biography is based on five years of interviews with de Beauvoir, and is written with her full cooperation. Bair penetrates the mystique of this brilliant and often paradoxical woman, who has been called one of the great minds of the 20th century, and surely, one of the most famously unconventional figures of her generation. "As a reference work Simone de Beauvoir can be considered definitive".--The Atlantic. 16-page photographic insert.

Editorial : From Publishers Weekly De Beauvoir's extraordinary, long relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre is the focus of this portrait, which combines literary biography, intellectual and oral history and feminist theory. PW called pk the work "impressively researched. Bair adds much to our knowledge of every aspect of de Beauvoir's life," commenting also that pk unfortunately she often overburdens readers with detail. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Informative and delightful book.. I am curious to know if she really believed she was telling the truth when she told Bair - and others - that most of her letters to Sartre were missing or if she was intentionally deceptive.

Bair spent a decent amount of space on Simone's fiction and she frequently correlates events with the autobiographies in the notes (she lets the reader know about the 'corrections' Simone made in her interviews with Bair and made note of inconsistencies). Gorgeous pictures of fascinating art, and the categorizations and descriptions are really interesting. Happy. When Bair asked about de Beauvoir's possible romantic relationship with Maheu in these early days, "The question produced a thunderclap of anger: 'That is absolutely not true I never even kissed a man on the mouth then, never, never, never!"

Of course, de Beauvoir's relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre is chronicled in some detail. Deirdre Bair intereviewed de Beauvoir for five years,