Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, nor was she considered one at the time of her death, she had a significant influence on both feminist existentialism and feminist theory.
Beauvoir wrote novels, essays, short stories, biographies, autobiographies, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and social issues. She was best known for her "trailblazing work in feminist philosophy", The Second Sex (1949), a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism. She was also known for her novels, the most famous of which were She Came to Stay (1943) and The Mandarins (1954).
Her most enduring contribution to literature is her memoirs, notably the first volume, Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée (1958). She received the 1954 Prix Goncourt, the 1975 Jerusalem Prize, and the 1978 Austrian State Prize for European Literature. She was also nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961, 1969 and 1973.Nomination archive – Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie B de Beauvoir nobelprize.org In contemporary times, Beauvoir has been criticized for having hurtful romantic and sexual relationships with three of her former students, two of whom also had relationships with Sartre.
Biography
Early years Beauvoir was born on 9 January 1908 in Montparnasse in the 6th arrondissement in a quality but poorly furnished apartment. Beauvoir's family was historically bourgeois though her aristocratic ancestor was given the title in 1786 and was killed during the revolution in 1790. Her parents were Georges Bertrand de Beauvoir, initially a lawyer but who aspired to be an actor, and Françoise Beauvoir (née Brasseur), a wealthy banker's daughter and devout Catholic. The family expected a dowry, but after Françoise's father was jailed, the promised dowry was not available.
As her parents were often absent, Simone was primarily raised by her nanny Louise. Louise had a strained relationship with Françoise Beauvoir. Simone also had a sister, Hélène, who was born on 6 June 1910. Beauvoir was intellectually precocious, fueled by her father's encouragement; he reportedly would boast,
Writing of her youth in Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, she said:
In the onset of World War I and inflation, and her father's turns at the front then the Ministry of War, the family's finances shrank significantly. Her father refused to return to law and likely became physically abusive to Françoise. He then began working for her mother's formerly disgraced father in a shoe factory, but he was an unreliable worker and the factory shuttered after the way. A family member offered him a role in newspaper advertising sales, but he also lost that job. In 1919, the family moved to a small fifth floor apartment with no central heating, running water, or bathroom.
Education As a young child, Beauvoir only attended school two days per week, starting at 5, and was otherwise educated by her mother. As a teenager, Beauvoir pursued post-secondary education after completing her high school years at . After passing baccalaureate exams in mathematics and philosophy at the age of seventeen in 1925, she studied mathematics at the Institut Catholique de Paris and literature/languages at the .
Although not officially enrolled, she sat in on courses at the École Normale Supérieure in preparation for the agrégation in philosophy, a highly competitive postgraduate examination that serves as a national ranking of students. It was while studying for it that she met École Normale students Jean-Paul Sartre, Paul Nizan, and René Maheu (who gave her the lasting nickname "Castor", or "Beaver"). She studied philosophy at the Sorbonne and after completing her degree in 1928, wrote her Diplôme d'études supérieures spécialisées (roughly equivalent to an M.A. thesis) on Leibniz for Léon Brunschvicg in 1929 (the topic was "Le concept chez Leibniz" ["The Concept in Leibniz"]).Margaret A. Simons (ed.), Feminist Interpretations of Simone de Beauvoir, Penn State Press, 1 November 2010, p. 3. In 1929, the jury for the agrégation narrowly awarded Sartre first place and gave second to Beauvoir. She was 21 years old which made her the youngest person to ever pass the exam and the eighth woman ever to do so. Additionally, Beauvoir finished an exam for the certificate of "General Philosophy and Logic" second to Simone Weil and before Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Her success as the eighth woman to pass the agrégation solidified her economic independence.
During this period Beauvoir maintained close friendships with her sister Helene, her friend Zara, and her cousin Jacques, for whom she had romantic interest. Though Jaques was often hot and cold towards her, he did begin a courtship with Beauvoir talking to her about authors, banned books, visiting art galleries, and musical performances. After Jacques failed his exams, he became more distant which Beauvoir assumed was a reflection of her own flaws Eventually, her mother forbade their courtship
Religious upbringing Beauvoir was raised Catholic and educated in convent schools. At age 7, she began taking communion three times a week. She was deeply religious and intended to become a nun. At age 14, Beauvoir began to question her faith and would go on to abandon religion in her teens. She remained an atheist for the rest of her life. To explain her atheist beliefs, Beauvoir stated,
Young Adulthood
Upon a visit to Lourdes at age eighteen Beauvoir felt disgust at the intellectual and sentimental, and felt her own sorrows could not compare to the suffering of the sick. Though she later updated this thought stating in her diaries that she should not be ashamed of living, and that as she has been given life it is her duty to live in the best possible way, and anything else is moral suicide.
Simone took a volunteer teaching position, in part to escape her mother's control, making up extra volunteer days so she could be allowed to walk Paris or watch her sister's art, and then worked part-time teaching for extra money to spend in Paris. Beauvoir began to expand her friendships, though friends noted she was prudish and often scandalized. She would soon expand her friendship with Merleau-Ponty, and wrote an ethical and love-focused thesis under the direction of Jean Baruzi. It was also at this time that she would become an atheist, stating she could now feel the terrible significant of the word alone. Merleau-Ponty and Zara would court and were kept apart by their parents. When they eventually decided to marry, Zara grew ill and died, with both spiritualizing their suffering, instead of blaming their parents for keeping them apart, which Beavour did not like. Beauvoir would eventually write a novel on Zara and Marleau-Ponty's relationship in Inseparable, published posthumously.
Introduction to Jean-Paul Sartre In 1929 Beauvoir became friends and possibly lovers with René Maheau, who was friends with Sartre. Sartre heard of Beauvoir's thesis and sent her a painting of Leibniz bathing with mermaids. Beauvoir initially resisted meeting him, a known womanizer, and sent her sister Helene to meet him instead. Beauvoir and Sartre later met a study group, and Sartre sent her presents including a Japanese painting and porcelain which Beauvoir did not like. Maheau failed to receive one the twenty-six available teaching posts and left Paris, where Beauvoir became closer to Sartre, through notably conflicted between her feelings between Sartre, Jacques, and Maheu, which she later downplayed in her public diaries.
In October 1929, Jean-Paul Sartre and Beauvoir became a couple for the next 51 years, until his death in 1980.Seymour-Jones 2008, back cover. After they were confronted by her father, Sartre asked her to marry him on a provisional basis. One day while they were sitting on a bench outside the Louvre, he said, "Let's sign a two-year lease".Bair, p. 155-7 Though Beauvoir wrote, "Marriage was impossible. I had no dowry", scholars point out that her ideal relationships described in The Second Sex and elsewhere bore little resemblance to the marriage standards of the day. I think marriage is a very alienating institution, for men as well as for women. I think it's a very dangerous institution—dangerous for men, who find themselves trapped, saddled with a wife and children to support; dangerous for women, who aren't financially independent and end up by depending on men who can throw them out when they are 40; and very dangerous for children, because their parents vent all their frustrations and mutual hatred on them. The very words 'conjugal rights' are dreadful. Any institution which solders one person to another, obliging people to sleep together who no longer want to is a bad one.
Instead, she and Sartre entered into a lifelong "soul partnership", which was sexual but not exclusive, nor did it involve living together. She chose never to marry and never had children. This gave her the time to advance her education and engage in political causes, write and teach, and take lovers.
Teaching Period After the completion of her studies, Beauvoir saw teaching as an opportunity to work towards earning her own living. She worked with Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Claude Lévi-Strauss, when all three completed their practice teaching requirements at the same secondary school. From 1929 through 1943, Beauvoir taught at the lycée level until she could support herself solely on the earnings of her writings. She taught at the (Marseille), the , and the Lycée Molière (Paris) (1936–39).Kelly Oliver (ed.), French Feminism Reader, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000, p. 1; Bulletin 2006 de l'Association amicale des anciens et anciennes élèves du lycée Molière, 2006, p. 22.
During the trial of Robert Brasillach in 1945, Beauvoir was among a small number of prominent intellectuals advocating for his execution for the 'intellectual crimes' of supporting Fascism and the genocide of Jewish people. She defended this decision in her 1946 essay "An Eye for an Eye".David Newcastle, The Rise and Fall of Pierre Drieu la Rochlle, Gilles, Tikhanov Library, 2024, preface"An Eye for an Eye": The Question of Revenge Sonia Kirks Relationships with former students Beauvoir was bisexual, and her relationships with young women are controversial. Throughout the 1930s and 40s, Beauvoir maintained three relationships with younger women, including Olga Kosakiewicz, Natalie Sorokin, and Bianca Lamblin (originally Bianca Bienenfeld). Beauvoir met Olga when she was nineteen and Beauvoir twenty-seven and eventually, she had relationships with both Beauvoir and Sartre, though according to Beauvoir, Olga would not have sex with Sartre. At this time Beauvoir would also begin what became a ten-year relationship with Jacques-Laurent Bost, which she hid from her memoirs. While the relationship with Olga ended, Olga would remain friends with Beauvoir through the 1970s. Bost would go on to court and marry Olga which made Beauvoir jealous. Beauvoir stated her only sensual life was with Bost, though she hid this from both Olga and Jacques-Laurent. Beauvoir would also continue years of dishonesty lying and hiding her relationship with Bost from Olga.