Tete-a-Tete: The Tumultuous Lives and Loves of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre (P.S.)
by Hazel Rowley
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 285)
Read in February, 2008
Why not celebrate Valemtime's Day by reading an account of Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and their fleet of polyamorous friends? Nothing says "I love you" like "Sit down and listen to the sordid details of my most recent affair with a lover much younger than you are." This is how Sartre and Beauvoir liked to roll. I'd hoped this book would shed more light on Beauvoir's relationship with Sartre, how they really were together, how they managed to make their arrangement ...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone interested in crazy french writers.
It's definitely a good read to get a solid grasp on Sartre and de Beauvoir's relationship, and I found it significantly engaging as I'd never known what their lives were like as people, beyond what they'd written.
That said, though well-researched, it's REALLY poorly written, and that got very annoying. However, I could overlook that and enjoy excerpts from their own writings and so forth. So I'd still recommend it, as the story's interesting, but only if you're taking it out of the library...more
That said, though well-researched, it's REALLY poorly written, and that got very annoying. However, I could overlook that and enjoy excerpts from their own writings and so forth. So I'd still recommend it, as the story's interesting, but only if you're taking it out of the library...more
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I really enjoyed this book, it was the perfect mix of philosophy, history and biography. It was an intresting and quick read for anyone who is intrested in Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sarte. It gives a closer look at both these literary giants as well as the myth of the couple that they were.
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Read in August, 2008
A friend recently started to read The Second Sex and either gave up or something more interesting came along, but she planted a seed of interested in Simone de Beauvoir.
What struck me in this dual biography is Beauvoir's strange relationship with Sartre. I feel like, as a feminist, she lived a life that was, in many significant ways, second to that of Sartre. She h...more
What struck me in this dual biography is Beauvoir's strange relationship with Sartre. I feel like, as a feminist, she lived a life that was, in many significant ways, second to that of Sartre. She h...more
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Read in February, 2008
Beauvoir and Sartre have always been fascinating to me--as individuals and as a couple of sorts. They chose a rather complex model for a relationship and created something unique. Somewhere in this book, I believe Rowley recounts either Beauvoir or Sartre writing to the other and explaining that in their relationship that they discovered their other self. And, as an outsider who combs through some of their history, this appears to be true.
Michael Dirda from The Washington Post Book World wr...more
Michael Dirda from The Washington Post Book World wr...more
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Read in March, 2007
recommends it for:
literary gossip geeks and conflicted polyamorists everywhere.
First of, any book with an adjective like "tumultous" in the title, unless to some degree satirical [think "amazing adventures of kavalier and clay,":], has a built in glass-ceiling of possible quality. That said...
It's rather, in my opinion, unfair to give a star-number rating to a book I have yet to finish, but I think the fact that I was given this book almost a month ago and am still working my way through it says something about how good it can possibly be.
The thi...more
It's rather, in my opinion, unfair to give a star-number rating to a book I have yet to finish, but I think the fact that I was given this book almost a month ago and am still working my way through it says something about how good it can possibly be.
The thi...more
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
closeted gossip columnists of modernism
Rowley's extensive research into personal correspondence of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre amounts to an intriguing who's-who of the personal lives of the title characters, their friends, colleagues, and countless others who passed through their orbit. The breadth of this book is impressive (albeit occasionally mundane), as well as its detailed, even-handed treatment of Beauvior's and Sartre's personal and professional lives.
Perhaps the book's most stunning element is its focus on ...more
Perhaps the book's most stunning element is its focus on ...more
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I was going through a really weird period in my life when I walked into some Barnes and Noble, grabbed this off the shelf, and sat in a corner creepily pawing through it. When I bought it, it was not really a decision but more a compulsion. Then I used it to defend all of my weird romantic choices. Like, "Well, did you know that Sartre and Beauvoir also broke up and got back together like twelve times?"
Then later my missionary zeal turned to disgust when it started to dawn on me...more
Then later my missionary zeal turned to disgust when it started to dawn on me...more
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Read in June, 2008
recommended to Mindy by:
Simonerecommends it for: love's achey existentialists
I began reading this my sophomore year in college. I only made it through the parts describing their youth and initial love story. When I decided to purchase this book this spring, I knew I had to conclude what I had started reading so long ago.
A lot of it makes me sad. Their epic affairs and near marriages to many other partners truly questions the definitions of love and relationships. But somehow their managing to remain cosmically connected and intellectually cemented gives even the most...more
A lot of it makes me sad. Their epic affairs and near marriages to many other partners truly questions the definitions of love and relationships. But somehow their managing to remain cosmically connected and intellectually cemented gives even the most...more
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Read in November, 2008
wow, it's interesting how much self-delusion can shape our own views of ourselves and how others view us.
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Read in October, 2008
"Sartre and I have been more ambitious; it has been our wish to experience 'contingent loves,' but there is one question we have deliberately avoided: how would the third person feel about the arrangement?"
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I had always admired Sartre and read his works extensively. When I picked this up, I was excited to learn more about the personal lives of a thinker who has been so important for me.
I was appalled. Reading the letters and history of their private conduct...well, one expects feet of clay, but perhaps not such glaring, manipulative, abusive hypocracy.
It was a very upsetting read for me and vastly reshaped my thinking about Sartre, his philosophy and his place in history.
I was appalled. Reading the letters and history of their private conduct...well, one expects feet of clay, but perhaps not such glaring, manipulative, abusive hypocracy.
It was a very upsetting read for me and vastly reshaped my thinking about Sartre, his philosophy and his place in history.
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Read in September, 2008
This book is ferocious. About twenty pages in, I began to feel a crazy urge to get my hands on any and everything Sartre and Beauvoir have ever written. They led extraordinary lives, and though I don't agree with a lot of their beliefs, I'm extremely fascinated by the way they stuck to their guns and basically gave society a "Screw you!" The writing is compelling to say the least...Hazel did her homework.
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Read in July, 2008
<Tete-a-Tete> was a fascinating look at Simone de Beauvoir's and Jean-Paul Sartre's relationship. It was great for understanding each writer's philosophy and life. Although it was not a Doris Goodwin Kearn's quality biography, I gained an everday life perspective on existentialism. It also renewed my interest in Camus and other existentialist writers.
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Read in March, 2008
ugh. i can't finish this right now. they need an "on hold" shelf on this thing. after hearing hazel rowley speak i was pretty interested, but after 150 pages i feel like i understand the relationship pretty well and i just don't feel like pushing on through the rest. this book could've been shorter.
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