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Eles dividiam ideias, ideais, amores e amantes.
Esta biografia dupla narra a história de dois dos maiores ícones intelectuais do século Simone de Beauvoir e Jean-Paul Sartre. O livro é centrado na relação de mais de 50 anos deles e aprofunda-se em episódios pouco explorados por outros os amantes, fãs seduzidos e triângulos amorosos, sempre manipulados pelo casal."Recheado com detalhes deliciosos. O resultado final é arrebatador." – The Guardian
"Extremamente detalhado, bem pesquisado e envolvente." – Booklist
Esta biografia dupla narra a história de dois dos maiores ícones intelectuais do século Simone de Beauvoir e Jean-Paul Sartre. O livro é centrado na relação de mais de 50 anos deles e aprofunda-se em episódios pouco explorados por outros os amantes, fãs seduzidos e triângulos amorosos, sempre manipulados pelo casal."Recheado com detalhes deliciosos. O resultado final é arrebatador." – The Guardian
"Extremamente detalhado, bem pesquisado e envolvente." – Booklist
857 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2008
49 people are currently reading
439 people want to read
About the author
Carole Seymour-Jones
13 books8 followersCarole Seymour-Jones was born in North Wales.
Educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and Sussex University, she became the acclaimed biographer of Beatrice Webb, Simone de Beauvoir and Vivienne Eliot, while her most recent book examined the life of Anglo-French SOE agent Pearl Witherington. She cited fellow biographers Richard Holmes and Hermione Lee, plus historian Antony Beevor, among her influences . A teacher of creative non-fiction, memoir and biography, Carole was a Visiting Fellow at the University of Surrey, a regular broadcaster, and judge of the Biographers’ Club Tony Lothian Prize.
Her biography 'Painted Shadow: The Life of Vivienne Eliot' was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. She was the chair of the Writers in Prison Committee of English PEN, and co-editor of 'Another Sky: Voices of Conscience from Around the World', a collection of pieces by writers imprisoned for expressing their views.
Educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and Sussex University, she became the acclaimed biographer of Beatrice Webb, Simone de Beauvoir and Vivienne Eliot, while her most recent book examined the life of Anglo-French SOE agent Pearl Witherington. She cited fellow biographers Richard Holmes and Hermione Lee, plus historian Antony Beevor, among her influences . A teacher of creative non-fiction, memoir and biography, Carole was a Visiting Fellow at the University of Surrey, a regular broadcaster, and judge of the Biographers’ Club Tony Lothian Prize.
Her biography 'Painted Shadow: The Life of Vivienne Eliot' was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. She was the chair of the Writers in Prison Committee of English PEN, and co-editor of 'Another Sky: Voices of Conscience from Around the World', a collection of pieces by writers imprisoned for expressing their views.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 5, 2010
"What did you do in the war, Sartre?"
Two years ago when I was in hospital I reread de Beauvoir's "Prime of Life" and it occurred to me that she and Sartre had rather an easy war. Now Carole Seymour-Jones, in this double biography, explodes the myth that the couple were prominent in the Resistance and we learn that they did very little indeed. It was Albert Camus who put himself in danger by publishing clandestinely, while Sartre and de Beauvoir attended only one committee meeting of the underground newspaper "Combat". What is more incriminating is that Sartre wrote nothing against the laws of Vichy France and the famous articles he is supposed to have written for "Combat" were actually penned by de Beauvoir.
Resistance and collaboration are difficult subjects and, since none of us knows what we would do under occupation, perhaps the golden couple of existentialism cannot be blamed for what they did not do.
More shocking for a whole generation of women, perhaps, is de Beauvoir's bisexuality and her abuse of her position as a teacher when she seduced female students. Her compliance in Sartre's affairs - the two had a pact whereby they were both free to take other lovers as long as they told each other - is well known. In acting as procuress for her "intellectual partner" and making friends with his lovers, she was, after all, following a tradition set by many a "maitresse en titre" but we are talking about the "mother of feminism" here!
I do not have a problem with Sartre's womanising or de Beauvoir's acceptance of it but I do have a problem with the fact that the greatest "anti-bourgeois" of his time took the very bourgeois step of setting his women up financially and that de Beauvoir did not rail against this.
The second major point on which the couple can legitimately be criticised is, of course, their tardiness in condemning the post-war actions of Stalin: feted by the Russians, they fell into every trap set for them: protagonists of their time, perhaps, but startlingly naive.
I had never understood de Beauvoir's relationship with her adopted daughter, Sylvie Le Bon but much is clarified here. It seems that the adoption was contrived mainly so that Le Bon could become de Beauvoir's literary executor, a decision which de Beauvoir' s sister understood.
Interestingly, Le Bon says that de Beauvoir never had an abortion, though of course the writer famously signed the "Manifesto of the 343" stating that she had. The extent to which de Beauvoir was pilloried after the publication of "The Second Sex" shocks even today.
All in all, then, a fascinating and timely biography of a couple who changed the thinking not only of their own generation but of generations to come. De Beauvoir emerges as less likeable than before but I admire her none the less: her feminism was based not upon ranting or hatred of men but upon intellectual rigour and that leaves her forever enthroned as "the mother of feminism". De Beauvoir once said of Sartre that he was "the writer who never lets you down". For me, it is de Beauvoir herself who never disappoints and continues to sustain me today as she did forty years ago.
The Prime of Life: The Autobiography of Simone De BeauvoirThe Second Sex
Two years ago when I was in hospital I reread de Beauvoir's "Prime of Life" and it occurred to me that she and Sartre had rather an easy war. Now Carole Seymour-Jones, in this double biography, explodes the myth that the couple were prominent in the Resistance and we learn that they did very little indeed. It was Albert Camus who put himself in danger by publishing clandestinely, while Sartre and de Beauvoir attended only one committee meeting of the underground newspaper "Combat". What is more incriminating is that Sartre wrote nothing against the laws of Vichy France and the famous articles he is supposed to have written for "Combat" were actually penned by de Beauvoir.
Resistance and collaboration are difficult subjects and, since none of us knows what we would do under occupation, perhaps the golden couple of existentialism cannot be blamed for what they did not do.
More shocking for a whole generation of women, perhaps, is de Beauvoir's bisexuality and her abuse of her position as a teacher when she seduced female students. Her compliance in Sartre's affairs - the two had a pact whereby they were both free to take other lovers as long as they told each other - is well known. In acting as procuress for her "intellectual partner" and making friends with his lovers, she was, after all, following a tradition set by many a "maitresse en titre" but we are talking about the "mother of feminism" here!
I do not have a problem with Sartre's womanising or de Beauvoir's acceptance of it but I do have a problem with the fact that the greatest "anti-bourgeois" of his time took the very bourgeois step of setting his women up financially and that de Beauvoir did not rail against this.
The second major point on which the couple can legitimately be criticised is, of course, their tardiness in condemning the post-war actions of Stalin: feted by the Russians, they fell into every trap set for them: protagonists of their time, perhaps, but startlingly naive.
I had never understood de Beauvoir's relationship with her adopted daughter, Sylvie Le Bon but much is clarified here. It seems that the adoption was contrived mainly so that Le Bon could become de Beauvoir's literary executor, a decision which de Beauvoir' s sister understood.
Interestingly, Le Bon says that de Beauvoir never had an abortion, though of course the writer famously signed the "Manifesto of the 343" stating that she had. The extent to which de Beauvoir was pilloried after the publication of "The Second Sex" shocks even today.
All in all, then, a fascinating and timely biography of a couple who changed the thinking not only of their own generation but of generations to come. De Beauvoir emerges as less likeable than before but I admire her none the less: her feminism was based not upon ranting or hatred of men but upon intellectual rigour and that leaves her forever enthroned as "the mother of feminism". De Beauvoir once said of Sartre that he was "the writer who never lets you down". For me, it is de Beauvoir herself who never disappoints and continues to sustain me today as she did forty years ago.
The Prime of Life: The Autobiography of Simone De BeauvoirThe Second Sex
November 28, 2018
Though the book started off a bit slow for me, once the lives of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre became intertwined at the time of their introduction in 1929 (when both were students at the École Normale Supérieure), I could hardly tear myself away. I set myself to reading 2 chapters a day.
I was surprised to discover how apolitical the 2 were during the 1930s. Both were then firmly set on establishing careers for themselves and having sexual relationships with impressionable young women. Many of these women like the Kosackiewicz sisters, Natalie Sorokine, and Bianca Lamblin (nee Bienenfeld - a Jew whom both de Beauvoir and Sartre abandoned as the Germans tightened their grip on France in the late spring of 1940). De Beauvoir later felt guilty for how shabbily she and Sartre had treated Lamblin and after the war, she and Lamblin would take annual trips together. (Lamblin, Seymour-Jones reveals, wrote her own memoirs in which she spoke fully of her betrayal and the nervous breakdown she suffered after having fought with the Maquis in the Vercours against the Germans.)
Sartre (and de Beauvoir to some extent) greatly understated their Resistance activity during the Second World War. In truth, both felt that the German occupation was likely to last 20 years and, like most French, largely accomodated themselves to Hitler's New Order in France. In contrast to Albert Camus, a mutual friend, Sartre and de Beauvoir played almost no part in the Resistance.
Sartre shortly before the war had begun to make a name for himself as a writer and existentialist thinker through his first successful book, 'La Nausee'. For de Beauvoir, the war helped her to find her voice as a writer.
In the postwar world, both became politically active and in the 1950s and 1960s, dupes of the Soviet Union. Eventually, both became disillusioned with the USSR. De Beauvoir became more deeply engaged in feminist causes during the latter stages of her life. It was part of a calling that de Beauvoir had felt all her life and first cristallized in her famous book, "The Second Sex", in 1949.
I invite any reader with an interest in the lives of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre to read this book. It is indeed REVELATORY and shows the uniqueness of their 50 year "special relationship" as well as their strengths, shortcomings and all too human frailties.
I was surprised to discover how apolitical the 2 were during the 1930s. Both were then firmly set on establishing careers for themselves and having sexual relationships with impressionable young women. Many of these women like the Kosackiewicz sisters, Natalie Sorokine, and Bianca Lamblin (nee Bienenfeld - a Jew whom both de Beauvoir and Sartre abandoned as the Germans tightened their grip on France in the late spring of 1940). De Beauvoir later felt guilty for how shabbily she and Sartre had treated Lamblin and after the war, she and Lamblin would take annual trips together. (Lamblin, Seymour-Jones reveals, wrote her own memoirs in which she spoke fully of her betrayal and the nervous breakdown she suffered after having fought with the Maquis in the Vercours against the Germans.)
Sartre (and de Beauvoir to some extent) greatly understated their Resistance activity during the Second World War. In truth, both felt that the German occupation was likely to last 20 years and, like most French, largely accomodated themselves to Hitler's New Order in France. In contrast to Albert Camus, a mutual friend, Sartre and de Beauvoir played almost no part in the Resistance.
Sartre shortly before the war had begun to make a name for himself as a writer and existentialist thinker through his first successful book, 'La Nausee'. For de Beauvoir, the war helped her to find her voice as a writer.
In the postwar world, both became politically active and in the 1950s and 1960s, dupes of the Soviet Union. Eventually, both became disillusioned with the USSR. De Beauvoir became more deeply engaged in feminist causes during the latter stages of her life. It was part of a calling that de Beauvoir had felt all her life and first cristallized in her famous book, "The Second Sex", in 1949.
I invite any reader with an interest in the lives of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre to read this book. It is indeed REVELATORY and shows the uniqueness of their 50 year "special relationship" as well as their strengths, shortcomings and all too human frailties.
April 18, 2020
‘Simone’s sense of difference and isolation nourished a growing sense of uniqueness. Although her teachers criticized her French compositions for being stilted, in a friend’s album, at the age of fifteen, she answered the question: ‘What do you want to do in later life? with “to be a famous author” … I had set my heart on that profession, to the exclusion of everything else.’ Like George Eliot, whose Mill on the Floss was her favourite novel, like Rosalind Lehmann, whose Dusty Answer she and Zaza both read, like Stendhal, Flaubert, and Alain Fournier, author of Le Grand Meaulnes, on whose moody hero her cousin Jacques modelled himself, she would be a novelist. It seemed the surest route to success. Zaza laughed at her friend’s ambitions. Provocatively she declared, ‘Bringing nine children10 into the world as Mama has done, is just as good as writing books.’ Simone disagreed; babies and animals were repugnant to her: ‘Maternity was something I couldn’t entertain, and I was astounded whenever Zaza started cooing over new-born infants.’ In the summer of 1926, at Meyrignac, she began ‘a vast novel’, whose heroine was to live through her own experiences and find herself in conflict with her environment“
“He called it Jean-sansterre, or ‘John Lackland’, a man without inheritance or possessions, which was what Sartre felt himself to be: a writer who owned nothing bar a pen and a pipe. Who as a child never had a home: ‘Careful!22 We aren’t at home!’ his mother would whisper to him when he made a noise. ‘We were never at home: either in the rue Le Goff or later on, when my mother remarried,’ Sartre wrote bitterly. Jean-sans-terre was a savage indictment of his unstable childhood, and one that was never published. It was too ‘ill-natured’, said its author. Instead, he wrote Les Mots, his most polished, ‘highly worked over’ book. Like Beauvoir’s Memoirs, it was full of secrets: even so, his pain was too great to continue the story after the age of twelve; to tell the truth would have wounded his mother too greatly. ‘How could I continue?’23 he asked Gerassi.
Anne-Marie was still alive. How could I blame her for not caring enough about me, for abandoning me, for choosing a shit [un con] over me? Yet that was the real reason I was so desperate to fit into that vile Protestant centre of La Rochelle …
Yet La Rochelle had been a life-changing metamorphosis. It was ‘to my great misfortune then and to my great future good fortune’, he wrote, with grim sarcasm, that he had become the ‘whipping-boy’ of the La Rochelle lycée. Dislocation and rejection put a chip of ice in his heart. The brutalized prince now resolved to be king. He took as his model the nineteenth-century comedy by Paul Verlaine, Les Uns et les autres, in which the leader of a band of handsome young men and pretty girls rules through strength of mind and charm. The future was going to be different. Jean-Paul would take revenge on all the salauds, bastards, who had humiliated him.”
“He called it Jean-sansterre, or ‘John Lackland’, a man without inheritance or possessions, which was what Sartre felt himself to be: a writer who owned nothing bar a pen and a pipe. Who as a child never had a home: ‘Careful!22 We aren’t at home!’ his mother would whisper to him when he made a noise. ‘We were never at home: either in the rue Le Goff or later on, when my mother remarried,’ Sartre wrote bitterly. Jean-sans-terre was a savage indictment of his unstable childhood, and one that was never published. It was too ‘ill-natured’, said its author. Instead, he wrote Les Mots, his most polished, ‘highly worked over’ book. Like Beauvoir’s Memoirs, it was full of secrets: even so, his pain was too great to continue the story after the age of twelve; to tell the truth would have wounded his mother too greatly. ‘How could I continue?’23 he asked Gerassi.
Anne-Marie was still alive. How could I blame her for not caring enough about me, for abandoning me, for choosing a shit [un con] over me? Yet that was the real reason I was so desperate to fit into that vile Protestant centre of La Rochelle …
Yet La Rochelle had been a life-changing metamorphosis. It was ‘to my great misfortune then and to my great future good fortune’, he wrote, with grim sarcasm, that he had become the ‘whipping-boy’ of the La Rochelle lycée. Dislocation and rejection put a chip of ice in his heart. The brutalized prince now resolved to be king. He took as his model the nineteenth-century comedy by Paul Verlaine, Les Uns et les autres, in which the leader of a band of handsome young men and pretty girls rules through strength of mind and charm. The future was going to be different. Jean-Paul would take revenge on all the salauds, bastards, who had humiliated him.”
September 19, 2016
Ļoti ilgi lasīju šo grāmatu - apmēram pusgadu, taču ne jau tāpēc, ka nepatiktu. Pirmkārt, grāmatai ir pāri 500 lpp, un, otrkārt, - tā ir biogrāfija, nevis fiction. Sākums ierāva, pēc tam bija dažas lasīšanas krīzītes, kuras veiksmīgi pārvarēju.
Grāmata vēsta ne tikai par Bovuāras un Sartra paktu par brīvo laulību (tas ir, esam kopā, bet brīvi iesaistīties attiecībās ar citiem), bet arī par viņu rakstīšanas un kara pieredzi, domubiedriem, politiskajām nostājām utt.
Detaļām (un arī vēstures, un filozofijas) bagāta grāmata, kura sniedz ieskatu divu slavenu rakstnieku dzīvē, viņu problēmās, kompleksos, attiecībās utt.
Kopumā man ļoti patika. Mazliet traucēja grāmatas apjoms, taču par spīti tam - nebija mirkļa, kad ienāktu prātā doma to atstāt līdz galam neizlasītu.
Grāmata vēsta ne tikai par Bovuāras un Sartra paktu par brīvo laulību (tas ir, esam kopā, bet brīvi iesaistīties attiecībās ar citiem), bet arī par viņu rakstīšanas un kara pieredzi, domubiedriem, politiskajām nostājām utt.
Detaļām (un arī vēstures, un filozofijas) bagāta grāmata, kura sniedz ieskatu divu slavenu rakstnieku dzīvē, viņu problēmās, kompleksos, attiecībās utt.
Kopumā man ļoti patika. Mazliet traucēja grāmatas apjoms, taču par spīti tam - nebija mirkļa, kad ienāktu prātā doma to atstāt līdz galam neizlasītu.
December 9, 2009
A Dangerous Liason is full of conjecture and censure, though seemingly so in the name of a purer history. This biography of confluence draws from interviews, private letters, and both published and unfinished works by the literary and political icons Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. The book looks at their thought (phenomenology, existentialism, feminism, Hegel) and their lives in love, a love of revolutionary intellectuals who agreed against marriage in favor of a more open, often libertine shared experience. It's sexy (Seymore-Jones details Simone's penchant for seducing her nubile female students with a refined system of "Kant and kisses"), informative (the Sartre/Camus relationship is given unprecedented personal dimension), and intriguing (did you know Sartre was repeatedly taped fucking a diabetic KGB agent?). Unfortunately, while attending to the biography of Beauvior, the author deeply mines published fiction, often supposing a parallel in reality. I say this is done in the name of a purer history because it is widely suggested in exaggeration that Beauvior's fiction is more autobiographical than her carefully combed memoirs. Even so, she seems too often to print supposition as fact. Or at least that's how I read it.
November 15, 2009
Although I have always enjoyed reading their literary and philosophical writings -- I even admire some -- I have never admired the characters of Sartre and de Beauvoir. This biography is, indeed, revelatory, and it will not win over any new fans for this controversial couple. It may be best to learn to appreciate Sartre and de Beauvoir first through their work before delving into their often hypocritical, sordid, and sad lives.
February 12, 2024
I am so happy I read this book. I've been fascinated by Simone de Beauvoir and Sartre for years and it was so great to read a biography on their lives and relationship. The author is incredibly fair in her presentation of their lives, not skirting away from the mistakes the couple made. Both SDB and JPS were flawed people and I don't believe it's helpful to view them with rose colored lenses many years after their deaths. They each lived life to the fullest and I deeply respect the wisdom and openness they shared with the world, both pioneers in existentialist thinking and gender equality. While the early years of their lives were problematic because of the grooming and courtship they facilitated in with younger women, I found the latter half of their lives to be quite sad, both SDB and JPS battling with addiction to alcohol, sex and other substances. It seemed like a cautionary tale with some of the pitfalls of existentialism and open relationships. I came away with the book finding Sartre to be much less aspirational than I originally felt and sometimes quite gross as a man. I still view Simone de Beauvoir as an incredibly inspiring woman who single handedly changed the discussion about gender and powered the modern feminist movement.
September 6, 2025
Ziemlich kritische Biographie von Castor und Jean-Paul, die ich im Mai, Juni und Juli während meiner Bachelorarbeit in Köln gelesen, habe. Ich habe nur etwa 80% gelesen, bevor ich mit einem besseren Buch weitergemacht habe. Dabei hat sie mich bei weitem nicht so gefesselt, wie "At the Existentialist Café". Philosophie spielt in diesem Buch keine große Rolle und wird auch nicht so schön erklärt. Insbesondere wird hier aufgearbeitet, wie Beauvoir und Sartre ihre Schüler:innen/Sexpartner:innen ausgenutzt und dominiert haben. Außerdem geht es um die Rolle von Sartre und Beauvoir während der Besetzung gespielt haben - scheinbar weit weniger in der résistance aktiv als weithin dargestellt.
Das Buch stellt dabei dar, wie sehr Beauvoir ihr (gemeinsames) Leben in ihren Autobiografien beschönigt und bereinigt dargestellt hat.
Das Buch stellt dabei dar, wie sehr Beauvoir ihr (gemeinsames) Leben in ihren Autobiografien beschönigt und bereinigt dargestellt hat.
July 15, 2019
Perhaps one of the best biographies of this iconic couple and their circle as well as the turbulent times in which they lived. It explodes many of the myths about Sartre and gives a somewhat disturbing picture of the reality - in terms of his political naivety in regard to Russia, his false claims of being active in the Resistance and his mistreatment of women, including Beauvoir. Beauvoir doesn't come out looking much better though. Hard to believe this legendary feminist - author of the groundbreaking "Second Sex" behaved as she did towards young women and acted as a procuress for Sartre, whose blatant mysogyny she apparently turned a blind eye to for most of their lives.
January 13, 2025
Υπέροχο βιβλίο! Πολύ εμπεριστατωμένο. Ίσως θα ήθελα λίγα περισσότερα στοιχεία για το πώς έγραψε το δεύτερο φύλο και για την αναζήτηση που έκανε. Αλλά ίσως το θέλω αυτό επειδή εξαιτίας του δεύτερου φύλου διάβασα αυτήν την βιογραφία. Η ζωή αυτών των ανθρώπων ήταν τόσο πλούσια σε εμπειρίες και τόσο ενδιαφέρουσα. Υπήρξαν σίγουρα θύματα και θύτες και έκαναν ορισμένα ασυγχώρητα λάθη. Πάντως το μόνο σίγουρο είναι ότι αν η Μποβουάρ διάβαζε αυτήν την βιογραφία θα καταλάβαινε ακόμα καλύτερα πόσο σημαντικό ήταν να γίνει φεμινίστρια και θα άρχιζε νωρίτερα όλο αυτό το έργο. Μόνο να έβλεπε πόσο άργησε να λάμψει εξαιτίας της σκιάς του Σαρτρ και της εξάρτησης της από αυτόν. Μόνο αυτό.
May 11, 2020
I have never given a book a one-star rating, but I absolutely could not make it through. This book might interest you if you are working on a graduate degree in French philosophers. It is not a biography for the casual reader. I made it almost 200 pages before giving up, but then I couldn't take it anymore. Every page is filled with French phrases followed by the translation, which I found distracting and pretentious. I can't recommend this book to anyone who, like me, is interested in biographies for the stories and the history. Life is too short to read books you don't like!
October 17, 2009
I found this book to be more author conjecture and guesswork than an actual biography. Got about half way through before I gave up. Disapointing that a book about two such fascinating people could be so dull.
November 9, 2014
Wow, this book has an amazing amount of detail and historical information. I can only imagine how long and hard the author worked to put it together. Truely an incredible book. Must read for anyone interested in existentialism or Simone's brand of feminism.
March 6, 2014
Fantastiski, izcili, aizraujoši utt. Brīnišķīga, ārprātīga grāmata, iesaku ļoti.
January 15, 2016
1939. gadā viņa rakstīja "vēsture sagrāba mani un vairs nepalaida vaļā."
October 9, 2016
An interesting and thorough insight into the life of Jean Paul Satre and Simone de Beauvoir as it definitely helped me understand their works in more context.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews