Becoming Beauvoir: A Life Author: Kate Kirkpatrick Publisher: CITIC Press Original title: Becoming Beauvoir: A Life

"The best biography of Beauvoir yet!"

“A must-read biography for anyone interested in Beauvoir’s philosophy”

"She inspired women all over the world and changed the way many people think"

Recommended by Financial Times, Guardian and Sunday Times

Recommended by Liang Hong, Mao Jian, Huang Yuning and Zhang Li

"Becoming Beauvoir" is a new authoritative biography of Beauvoir, based on Beauvoir's letters and early diaries that have been newly exposed in recent years. "Women are not born, but become," Beauvoir said. This groundbreaking biography introduces Beauvoir's never-before-published diaries and letters and other new materials, pulling her out of Sartre's shadow and putting her in her own spotlight. This biography will present readers with a more real and three-dimensional Beauvoir, and also let us re-examine the relationship between Beauvoir and Sartre.

This book will also present many previously unknown personal details about Beauvoir. These new details will enhance Beauvoir's mystery and make us more fascinated by her. Why did this "feminist icon" work hard to create her own image? Why did she frequently "lie" about her relationship with Sartre or claim that she was not a philosopher? Perhaps with these new details, we can get to know the real Beauvoir better.

【Editor's recommendation】

★Written based on more exclusive and rich materials, including the love letters between Claude Lanzmann and Beauvoir that were exposed in 2018, Beauvoir's student diary that is only available in French, and an interview with Beauvoir's adopted daughter.

★ The author is more authoritative. Kate is an expert on Beauvoir and Sartre at Oxford University. The references are rigorous and meticulous, authoritative and credible, with high academic value, and accompanied by 13 precious photos. Highly recommended by the Financial Times, the Guardian, the Sunday Times, and the Literary Review.

★Why did Beauvoir erase other men from her memoirs and give Sartre the most important position that was not in line with the facts? A secret lover? A same-sex partner? How much did Beauvoir conceal in her autobiography?

★For a long time, people mentioned Beauvoir and thought of her as just "Sartre's partner." However, this biography allows Beauvoir to step out from Sartre's shadow and explore her life, her works, her thoughts, and her love.

【Media Recommendation】

A book worth reading slowly. There are so many fascinating details that people want to read it all at once. But it is worth our time to slow down and appreciate this great woman who has inspired women all over the world and changed the way many people think.

—The Sunday Times

In Kirkpatrick’s biography, Beauvoir is restored to her full oeuvre, her complexity revealed, her courage revealed—not just as a quote taken out of context.

——Literary Review

A commendable biography that goes beyond the misogynistic biographies of Beauvoir that preceded it, showing us the turbulent life and complex contradictions of this extraordinary woman.

——The Irish Examiner

Kirkpatrick gives us more room to think about Beauvoir's complex relationship to feminism, and the author also provides a rich discussion... The letters to Lanzmann are indeed an important new resource to help us understand Beauvoir... Most importantly, Kirkpatrick's biography of Beauvoir clearly shows us Beauvoir's strong moral beliefs and how she put them into her political participation after the war.

——The Guardian

Kirkpatrick presents us with an analysis of Beauvoir's philosophy that is more detailed and analytical than any previous biography of Beauvoir... Her strength lies in the connection between Beauvoir's logic and her life... This is the best biography of Beauvoir so far.

—— Standpoint Magazine

Kirkpatrick painstakingly combs through Beauvoir's comments, diaries, and interviews she gave in her later years to rediscover the rich life of this inspiring feminist, philosopher, and existentialist. This biography will make a new wave of readers fall in love with Beauvoir—politically conscious feminists like her are few and far between today, and we need them more than ever.

—Samera Harris, SA Weekly

This biography is important because it offers readers a radical, powerful, and necessary new, evidence-based reading of Simone de Beauvoir's life and work. This is a compelling, scholarly and excellent biography that will stay with readers for a long time.

—Susanna Lipscomb, Professor of History, University of Roehampton, UK

Do we need another biography of Beauvoir? Of course! This is the last biography that focuses on Beauvoir's philosophy rather than her emotional life. Kate Kirkpatrick uses newly discovered material to respectfully, compassionately, and insightfully re-examine Beauvoir's life and how it was guided by her own existentialism and limited by her circumstances. This wonderful biography couldn't be more timely!

—Tove Petersen, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oslo, Norway, and President of the International Beauvoir Association

Meticulously researched and beautifully written, Kirkpatrick uses new material to uncover inconsistencies in previous biographies of Beauvoir, including inconsistencies that came from Beauvoir herself. Becoming Beauvoir is a must-read for anyone interested not only in Beauvoir's life but also in her philosophy.

—Fiona Vera-Gray, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Durham University, UK

About the Author · · · · · ·

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