The Prime of Life: The Autobiography of Simone De Beauvoir [Paperback]

Simone de Beauvoir (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1992

A volume of de Beauvoir's autobiograghy. It covers her life from her graduation at age 20 to the beginning of her fame after the war, when she was about forty. Paperback: 479 pages Publisher: Marlowe & Co; 1st Paragon Ed edition (March 1992) Language: English

Product Details

• Paperback: 479 pages
• Publisher: Marlowe & Co; 1st Paragon Ed edition (March 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569249563
• ISBN-13: 978-1569249567
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #177,867 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars readable, juicy, challenging, fascinating, April 21, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Prime of Life: The Autobiography of Simone De Beauvoir (Paperback)

This is my favorite volume of de Beauvoir's autobiograghy. It covers her life from her graduation at age 20 to the beginning of her fame after the war, when she was about forty. This book paints a vivid piture of now famous Left Bank intellectuals; their philosophies, politics, love lives, travels, and various predicaments they inevitabley get themselves into. I stumbled across this book by accident as a teenager and read it only because I was bored. It opened up an entire world for me;existentialism, feminism, socialism, French history and culture, all of which I now study at university. This book is aslo a great introduction to de Beauvoir's THE MANDARINS, which is a fictionalized account of the same people and places

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging personal experience of a worldwide story, January 1, 2003

By 

Stacey M Jones (Conway, Ark.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Prime of Life (Paperback)

This is the second volume of de Beauvoir's five-volume autobiograpy, and it covers 1929 to 1944.

This one was harder to break into than the first, I felt, as she began somewhat vaguely about her philosophy, the things she was working on, etc. The first part of the book vaguely and distantly describes the beginning of her relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre, so the personal is perhaps rather squashed here (maybe that's why I found it less engaging than "Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter" at first). But as I made my way forward, I found the same compelling qualities of the first, and more -- as de Beauvoir is older: Her interests and her circle of friends are expanding.

This book is interesting on so many levels, and I would recommend it to stand on its own (it doesn't have to be read as part of the whole), as well. It's interesting, as the first one was, for the way she describes her life in Paris at the time (she names all the cafes, neighborhoods, etc., that she frequents), and, as the first one, because it still dwells on how she is beginning her professional life that would lead her to be one of the foremost twentieth century philosophers and writers. So it's got something on both personal and broader themes.

But this book also adds the elements of the writer, as during its years, de Beauvoir writes her first books "She Came to Stay" and "The Blood of Others." I like to read about how writers work, their processes, and de Beauvoir very interestingly dissects her work in retrospect, writing things like, "What I was trying to accomplish at the time through Francoise's character was... but I see now that she comes across as ..." De Beauvoir was a very vigilant and disciplined worker, researcher and writer, and she writes of these routines. For writers interested in how others work, where they get their ideas and how they edit and redraft, I would certainly recommend this.

But this work is also interesting on another level; its most compelling part is when she details the beginning of WWII and the occupation of Paris. Rather than summarize it with the view the passing years have given her, de Beauvoir excerpts her diaries from the time, so that the reader feels the fears, understands the unknown dangers that she felt and gets the immediacy and intimacy of the worries of Parisiens such as de Beauvoir. I really couldn't put these sections down as she wrote about fleeing the Nazi occupiers, then deciding that if Sartre were released, he would only be able to find her in Paris and her desperate journey home again.

The book also starts a theme I can see will continue in all of them, outlining her travels as she (sometimes alone, sometimes with Sartre or others) goes around France and abroad and writes of how she feels and what she discovers there. In this volume, to name a few, she goes to Greece, Spain and all over
France.

The voice of these autobiographies is somewhat distant and aloof, which I find useful, as she seems intent on presenting her life very objectively, but when Sartre is attacked or criticized, she loses this coolness of tone and makes personal attacks on his critics.

The last aspect I'll mention of this long volume (nearly 500 pages) is the circle of friends she creates. She happens to befriend Alberto Giacometti, who is my favorite artist, in Paris and writes very fondly of his intellect and engaging conversations. She meets Hemingway and is an aquaintance of Picasso and his longtime lover Dora Marr. She also meets Cocteau through Sartre's theatrical work.

I found the wartime writing of this second one particularly engaging and probably of wider interest than the episodes of de Beauvoir's daily life later on... but we'll see!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An adventurous ride through time, October 14, 2007

By 

Jennifer J. Timmons "womanwarrior007" (Princess Anne, MD, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Prime of Life: The Autobiography of Simone De Beauvoir (Paperback)

This second volume of de Beauvoir's autobiography made me feel as if I had been transported back in time, observing her daily activities, people she interacted with, and also made me think I was privy to her private thoughts, as I had with Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, the first volume of her autobiography.

The Prime of Life continues her life from 1929--picking up where she left off in Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter and when she is finally independent of her parents, to the end of WWII--the Liberation of Paris.

After I finished the first volume, I couldn't imagine how another autobiography--a sequel, if you will, could be just as good, but Prime of Life IS equally good.

Her descriptions of enjoying her personal freedom captivated my imagination: being able to go wherever she wished, dress however she wished w/o care to what others may have thought, socialize with whomever she wished, etc. On her many travel adventures, alone,with and without Sartre. or other friends, she made me feel I was right there beside her, whether she was on one of her many walks into an unfamiliar town or moutain area, or riding alone in a train--imagining she was some kind of international spy! Or on a mountainous bicycle ride (and then having a near-fatal accident).

I was intrigued by her self-criticisms of her writing. And she had me engrossed in the many suspenseful moments of the second half of the book describing the war years--of the days leading up to it, the years of want during the war, and the Liberation.

It all was very exciting!

It's a lot of good food to digest for your mind.