A captivating novella about long-term relationships, getting older and how to live a good life, by the great Simone de Beauvoir.

Nicole and André, a retired French couple, take a summer holiday to Russia. It is the 1960s and Russia is a beautiful, complicated place. Their guide is Macha, André's daughter from a previous relationship - a woman they both love. Adventure, inspiration, good food and good vodka are promised.

Once thrilled by their romance, Nicole and André have now become too used to each other. Both harbour a growing feeling of not being fully understood - of being alone. Father and daughter engage in the grand debates of East-West relations, nationalism and socialism. But getting older, long-term relationships and how to enjoy life turn out to be the more pressing issues.

TRANSLATED BY CONSTANCE BORDE AND SHEILA MALOVANY-CHEVALLIER
ANNOTATED AND INTRODUCED BY MARTINE REID

'Everyone who cares about freedom and justice for women should read The Second Sex' Guardian

Simone de Beauvoir famously wrote, 'One is not born, but rather becomes, woman'. In this groundbreaking work of feminism she examines the limits of female freedom and explodes our deeply ingrained beliefs about femininity. Liberation, she argues, entails challenging traditional perceptions of the social relationship between the sexes and, crucially, in achieving economic independence.

Drawing on sociology, anthropology and biology, The Second Sex is as important and relevant today as when it was first published in 1949.

The lost novel from the author of The Second Sex

When Andrée joins her school, Sylvie is immediately fascinated. Andrée is small for her age, but walks with the confidence of an adult. The girls become close. They talk for hours about equality, justice, war and religion; they lose respect for their teachers; they build a world of their own. But as the girls grow into young women, the pressures of society mount, threatening everything.

This novel was never published in Simone de Beauvoir's lifetime. It tells the story of the real-life friendship that shaped one of the most important thinkers and feminists of the twentieth century.

TRANSLATED BY LAUREN ELKIN - INTRODUCED BY DEBORAH LEVY

'Slim, elegant, achingly tragic and unaffectedly lovely in its evocation of the closeness between girls - and the pressures that sunder them' Spectator

'There were lines that absolutely punched me in the gut' Anbara Salam

'Gorgeously written, intelligent, passionate' Oprah Daily

'Elegantly translated...a rich and rewarding novella' Literary Review

Vintage Feminism: classic feminist texts in short form

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY NATALIE HAYNES

When this book was first published in 1949 it was to outrage and scandal. Never before had the case for female liberty been so forcefully and successfully argued. De Beauvoir’s belief that ‘One is not born, but rather becomes, woman’ switched on light bulbs in the heads of a generation of women and began a fight for greater equality and economic independence. These pages contain the key passages of the book that changed perceptions of women forever.

TRANSLATED BY CONSTANCE BORDE AND SHEILA MALOVANY-CHEVALLIER
ANNOTATED AND INTRODUCED BY MARTINE REID

Written as an act of revenge against the 17 year-old who came between her and Jean-Paul Sartre, She Came to Stay is Simone de Beauvoir’s first novel – a lacerating study of a young, naive couple in love and the usurping woman who comes between them.

‘It is impossible to talk about faithfulness and unfaithfulness where we are concerned. You and I are simply one. Neither of us can be described without the other.’

It was unthinkable that Pierre and Francoise should ever tire of each other. And yet, both talented and restless, they constantly feel the need for new sensations, new people. Because of this they bring the young, beautiful and irresponsible Xavière into their life who, determined to take Pierre for herself, drives a wedge between them, with unforeseeable, disastrous consequences…

Published in 1943, 'She Came to Stay' is Simone de Beauvoir's first novel. Written as an act of revenge against the woman who nearly destroyed her now legendary, unorthodox relationship with the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, it fictionalises the events of 1935, when Sartre became infatuated with seventeen-year old Olga Bost, a pupil and devotee of de Beauvoir's.

Passionately eloquent, coolly and devastatingly ironic, 'She Came to Stay' is one of the most extraordinary and powerful pieces of fictional autobiography of the twentieth century, in which de Beauvoir's 'tears for her characters freeze as they drop.'

First published in 1967, this book consists of three short novellas on the theme of women's vulnerability – in the first, to the process of ageing, in the second to loneliness, and, in the third, to the growing indifference of a loved one.

THE WOMAN DESTROYED is a collection of three stories, each an exquisite and passionate study of a woman trapped by circumstances, trying to rebuild her life.

In the first story, ‘The Age of Discretion’, a successful scholar fast approaching middle age faces a double shock – her son’s abandonment of the career she has chosen for him and the harsh critical rejection of her latest academic work. ‘The Monologue’ is an extraordinary New Year’s Eve outpouring of invective from a woman consumed with bitterness and loneliness after her son and her husband have left home. Finally, in ‘The Woman Destroyed’, Simone de Beauvoir tells the story of Monique, trying desperately to resurrect her life after her husband confesses to an affair with a younger woman.

Compassionate, lucid, full of wit and knowing, Simone de Beauvoir’s rare insight into the inequalities and complexities of women’s lives is unsurpassable.

'It is possible for man to snatch the world from the darkness of absurdity'

How should we think and act in the world? These writings on the human condition by one of the twentieth century's great philosophers explore the absurdity of our notions of good and evil, and show instead how we make our own destiny simply by being.

One of twenty new books in the bestselling Penguin Great Ideas series. This new selection showcases a diverse list of thinkers who have helped shape our world today, from anarchists to stoics, feminists to prophets, satirists to Zen Buddhists.

“[Beauvoir’s] graciously written memoirs carry distinct appeal in recording the emotional and intellectual birth pangs of a fascinating woman.” —Time

A superb autobiography by one of the great literary figures of the twentieth century, Simone de Beauvoir's Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter offers an intimate picture of growing up in a bourgeois French family, rebelling as an adolescent against the conventional expectations of her class, and striking out on her own with an intellectual and existential ambition exceedingly rare in a young woman in the 1920s.

Beauvoir vividly evokes her friendships, love interests, mentors, and the early days of the most important relationship of her life, with fellow student Jean-Paul Sartre, against the backdrop of a turbulent political time.

A Harper Perennial Modern Classics reissue of this unflinching examination of post-war French intellectual life, and an amazing chronicle of love, philosophy and politics from one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century.

An epic romance, a philosophical argument and an honest and searing portrayal of what it means to be a woman, this is Simone de Beauvoir’s most famous and profound novel. De Beauvoir sketches the volatile intellectual and political climate of post-war France with amazing deftness and insight, peopling her story with fictionalisations of the most important figures of the era, such as Camus, Sartre and Nelson Algren. Her novel examines the painful split between public and private life that characterised the female experience in the mid-20th century, and addresses the most difficult questions of gender and choice.

It is an astonishing work of intellectual athleticism, yet also a moving romance, a love story of passion and depth. Long out of print, this masterpiece is now reissued as part of the Harper Perennial Modern Classics series so that a whole new generation can discover de Beauvoir’s magic.

Ein autofiktionaler Roman, leidenschaftlich und tragisch, über die Rebellion junger Frauen: Sylvie (Simone de Beauvoir) und ihre Jugendfreundin Andrée (Zaza) sind unzertrennlich. Gemeinsam kämpfen sie gegen den erstickenden Konformismus einer bürgerlichen Gesellschaft, in der Küsse vor der Ehe und freie Gedanken für Frauen verboten sind.
Sylvie bewundert Andrée: Sie scheint so selbständig – und doch gerät gerade sie immer tiefer in die Falle ihrer ach so tugendhaften Familie. Diese trennt Andrée von dem Jungen, den sie liebt. Sylvie will ihrer Freundin helfen. Aber wie?
Als de Beauvoir das Manuskript Sartre zeigte, fand der es zu intim für eine Veröffentlichung. Es blieb in der Schublade. Fast siebzig Jahre später hat de Beauvoirs Adoptivtochter Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir diesen kurzen Roman nun freigegeben und ein Vorwort dazu geschrieben. Sie macht damit einen Urtext des frühen Feminismus zugänglich, mehr noch – eine Liebeserklärung de Beauvoirs an Zaza, die so jung starb. Ergänzt wird der Band mit noch nie gesehenen Schwarz-Weiß-Fotos und Briefen der beiden Freundinnen.
«Eine unvergessliche Begegnung.» The New York Times

Una novela inédita, muy íntima, de la gran autora francesa ganadora del Premio Goncourt e icono del feminismo

«Una pequeña novela, corta pero llena de significado y en la que De Beauvoir vertió su alma.»
Telva

Escrita en 1954, cinco años después de la publicación de El segundo sexo, Las inseparables narra la amistad apasionada que une a Sylvie y a Andrée -alter ego de la propia Simone de Beauvoir y de Élisabeth Lacoin (Zaza)- desde que con nueve años se conocen en la escuela. Andrée es alegre, inteligente y atrevida, y Sylvie, una niña formal que se siente irremediablemente atraída por su personalidad arrolladora. Juntas aprenderán a librarse de las convenciones y las expectativas asfixiantes de su entorno, ignorantes del trágico precio que tienen la libertad y la ambición intelectual y existencial. Una historia catártica para la autora, tal vez demasiado reveladora para publicarla en vida, cuya recuperación -junto con algunas fotografías y cartas que sirven de testimonio- constituye un acontecimiento literario.

La crítica ha dicho...
«La novela más íntima de Simone de Beauvoir, material explosivo donde había depositado sus inquietudes primeras, sus coqueteos con el mundo, los deseos compartidos, la militancia natural entre dos hembras que se abrazaban completamente.»
Lorena G. Maldonado, El Español

«Un libro inesperado [...] que desconcierta y fascina de inmediato.»
Silvia Ayuso, El País

«Una historia intimista y vibrante.»
Iñaki Ezkerra, La Verdad

«Una novela magníficamente escrita, inteligente y apasionada que recuerda, en muchos sentidos, a obras contemporáneas como La amiga estupenda de Elena Ferrante.»
Leigh Haber, Oprah Daily

«Esta versión dulcificada de la realidad se lee con placer y, en lo profundo, se adivina a una sentimental Simone de Beauvoir, mucho más densa en sus reflexiones biográficas.»
Lourdes Ventura, El Cultural

«Una novela inédita conmovedora, verdadera y cruda. [...] El carácter autobiográfico y la pureza y honestidad a la hora de relatar esta relación, hacen de este texto una novela apasionante sobre la mayoría de edad, sobre la amistad femenina y la búsqueda de su propio camino en el mundo.»
Francisco Recio, La Opinión de Málaga

«Simone de Beauvoir también habla de ti y esta obra demuestra que la obra de la escritora sigue vigente: las desigualdades en los hogares, la presión por los cánones estéticos y el tratamiento de la vejez.»
Núria Juanico Llumà, Ara Llegim

«Se lee con placer y, en lo profundo, se adivina a una sentimental Simone de Beauvoir, mucho más densa en sus reflexiones biográficas.»
Lourdes Ventura, El Cultural

«Los lectores de Beauvoir hemos esperado por décadas esta novela.

Das berühmte Standardwerk von Simone de Beauvoir!
Die universelle Standortbestimmung der Frau, die aus jahrtausendealter Abhängigkeit von männlicher Vorherrschaft ausgebrochen ist, hat nichts an Gültigkeit eingebüßt. Die Scharfsichtigkeit der grundlegenden Analyse tritt in der Neuübersetzung noch deutlicher hervor.
Simone de Beauvoir überprüft die subjektiven und objektiven Einschränkungen und Belastungen, denen Frauen ausgesetzt waren und sind. Aus souveränem Verständnis, profundem Wissen und umsichtig angeordnetem überreichem Quellenmaterial formt sie die Diagnose von Ängsten, Frustrationen, Unterlegenheitsgefühlen, Kompensation und ausweichenden Reaktionen, die der weiblichen Emanzipation noch immer entgegenstehen.