Customer Reviews

The Beauvoir Sisters: An Intimate Look at How Simone and Helene Influenced Each Other and the World

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Claudine Monteil has done a marvelous job of bringing her friends Simone and Helene de Beauvoir back to life in The Beauvoir Sisters. It is the story of the sisters' relationship, their impact on the women's movement both in France and abroad, and their personal relationships with friends and lovers.

This is an excellent complement to Simone de Beauvoir's work, particularly her autobiographies. I have not yet read Madame de Roulet's (Helene's married name) autobiography, but would like to. Monteil was a 20 year old university student when she met 60ish Simone de Beauvoir, who requested to meet Monteil because of her activist work with female factory workers. They befriended one another and worked together for women's causes, through Mouvement de Liberation des Femmes (MLF)(Women's Liberation Movement).

Monteil eventually met Helene, and became her friend as well. The author offers a good overview of their early life, but I find the most interesting part of the book was her friendship with them--how she interweaves conversations between the two sisters during which she was present, her relations with each sister, and conversations she had with each. Because older sister Simone was so famous, she often overshadowed younger sister Helene's achievements as a painter, as well as an activist for women.

I think Claudine Monteil gives fair share of attention to both sisters. Their friendship lasted decades, from the time she met Simone in 1970, until Helene's death in 2001. She shows the good and not-so-good aspects of the Beauvoir sisters. She also reveals the hostile behaviour of outsiders resistant to the changes they helped to bring about for the fair treatment of women and women's rights, but ugliness comes especially from the unexpected and hurtful actions of the respective heirs (adopted daughters) of both Sarte and Simone, following their deaths. Monteil was with both sisters during their losses of their loved ones: Simone, when her life-long companion Jean-Paul Sarte died, and with Helene, when Simone passed--and then three years later, Helene's husband, Lionel.

The Beauvoir Sisters is a testament to the strength of the friendship the author shared with them, and the love they had for one another. I thoroughly enjoyed it!