She Came to Stay [Paperback]

Simone de Beauvoir (Author), Simone de Beauvoir (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1999

"One of the most acute and thoughtful achievements of French fiction at mid-century." — New York Times

Set in Paris on the eve of World War II and sizzling with love, anger, and revenge, She Came to Stay explores the changes wrought in the soul of a woman and a city soon to fall. Although Françoise considers her relationship with Pierre an open one, she falls prey to jealousy when the gamine Xavière catches his attention. The moody young woman from the countryside pries her way between Françoise and Pierre, playing up to each one and deviously pulling them apart, until the only way out of the triangle is destruction. "Behind the sympathy there is curiosity. . . . A writer whose tears for her characters freeze as they drop." — Sunday London Times

Editorial Reviews

Review

"One of the most acute and thoughtful achievements of French fiction at mid-century. -- >>

Behind the sympathy there is curiosity. . . . A writer whose tears for her characters freeze as they drop. -- Sunday London Times

About the Author

Simone de Beauvoir is the author of The Second Sex and the winner of the Prix Goncourt, France's highest honor, for The Mandarins.

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393318842
• ISBN-13: 978-0393318845
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #129,871 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Existential relationships are never easy., October 7, 2004

By 

G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: She Came to Stay (Paperback)

Relationships are never easy, even for intellectuals like Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. Set in pre-World War II Paris, de Beauvoir's first novel, SHE CAME TO STAY (1954) provides a fictional portrait of her unconventional relationship with her lifelong partner, Sartre, and her protege, Bianca Bienenfeld. Their menage a trois began in 1938, when de Beauvoir introduced Bienenfeld (aka Bianca Lamblin) to her partner/lover, Sartre, who was thirty-three, and ended in 1940 when, at de Beauvoir's encouragement, Sartre abandoned Lamblin on the eve of WWII. Although SHE CAME TO STAY may be read as a love story examining the complex dilemmas posed by love (demonstrating existential relationships are perhaps easier in theory than in reality) and the destructive powers of relationships, it also succeeds on a more philosphical level.

SHE CAME TO STAY tells the story of Francoise, her lover, Pierre, and Xaviere, an emotionally unstable young woman from Rouen who comes between them. The novel demonstrates that a relationship can lead not only to ecstasy, but also to a personal, life-changing crisis. The romantic threesome de Beauvoir creates for Francoise sears her protagonist "like a sharp burn" (p. 207). Francoise becomes angry, insanely jealous, and then disillusioned with her dream of "one life, one work, one love" (p. 233) with Pierre. Eventually, her relationship leads her to experience life without meaning: an existential "abyss of nothingness" (p. 291). "It was like death," de Beauvior writes, "a total negation, an eternal absence . . . the entire universe was was engulfed in it, and Francoise, forever excluded from the world, was herself dissolved in this void" (p. 291). By the end of the novel, Xaviere is destroyed by an act of revenge, and Francoise is alone and estranged from Pierre.

While SHE CAME TO STAY may not measure up to the writing standards de Beauvoir later set with THE MANDARINS and THE SECOND SEX, it is nevertheless a powerful novel. Readers interested in reading more about de Beauvoir's real-life triangle with Sartre and Lamblin may consider reading Lamblin's memoir, A DISGRACEFUL AFFAIR, in which Lamblin offers her first-hand account of her unconventional relationship with the two French existentialists.

G. Merritt

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So Real!, April 10, 2008

By 

Stella - See all my reviews

This review is from: She Came to Stay (Paperback)

This book made me sad, happy, angry, interested...pretty much everything. I was going from ''kick her out'' to ''kick him out'', to ''get real'' even if aware of the existentialist ideas behind it and what I am 'supposed' to think about it.

A great read even if some were disappointed by De Beauvoir for preaching one thing an living the other. Hey, we are all just human and this book is so honest it is almost painful!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Semi-Autobiographical Account of Beauvoir's Life, August 8, 2010

By 

Rufus Burgess (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: She Came to Stay (Paperback)

"She Came to Stay" is mostly a non-fictional account of a menage-a-trois between Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Olga Kosakievicz (who the book is dedicated to). Kosakievicz was a student of Beauvoir's and later developed a relationship with Beauvoir and Sartre. They were the dominate members of the trio and Kosakievicz was more of a submissive tag-along. Even after the trio split up Kosakivicz would remain financially dependent on Sartre and remain close friends with Beauvoir.

Beauvoir, much like Sartre, uses fiction as a way to explain philosophical concepts such as freedom and bad faith. "She Came to Stay" was published in 1943 and written at the same time Sartre was working on "Being and Nothingness." Beauvoir actively helped Sartre in his writing and the philosophical undertone of "Being and Nothingness" is apparent in "She Came to Stay."

Beauvoir's first novel does have two possible flaws. First, the writing is not pulp fiction. Like Sartre's writing it sometimes sacrifices the story for philosophical reasoning. This is not necessarily a flaw but it does make some sections of the novel rather dry. Second, Beauvoir's account of her emotions and actions are sometimes rather restricted. The novel was published in 1943 and she was still in contact with nearly everyone she wrote about. Her posthumously released "Letters to Sartre" give a much more detailed account of her affair with Olga.

"She Came to Stay" is a good novel to read for anyone interested in Beauvoir, the French intellectual elite of the late 1930's, or taboo relationships.