Simone De Beauvior: The Making of an Intellectual Woman [Paperback]

Toril Moi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 25, 1993 | ISBN-10: 063119181X | ISBN-13: 978-0631191810 | Edition: 1

Moving from the impact of educational institutions on Beauvoir to her representation of love, desire and sexuality, Toril Moi analyzes the conflicts and contradictions that shape intellectual women's lives. She offers an interpretation of Beauvoir's relationship to Sartre and to other women, and reads Beauvoir as a writer of depression. She also considers Beauvoir the greatest feminist theorist of our century and sees "The Second Sex" as the founding text for materialist feminism.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Despite her life with Jean-Paul Sartre as his mistress and disciple, de Beauvoir developed into an "emblematic" figure of intellectual feminism at the dawn of the 20th-century women's movement. She transcended existentialist influences, especially in her nonfiction work, to discuss feminine character and role, which is the main theme in her writings. Moi (Duke Univ.) therefore describes her as the founder of materialist feminism. This mostly biographical study relies firsthand on characters, places, and documents relevant to de Beauvoir and her feminist thought in particular. Most sections of the book were previously published separately; thus, little material is unknown to the specialist. The philosophical analysis is accessible to the average reader, however. Recommended for women's studies collections and large academic libraries.
- Ali Houissa, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Sympathetic and critical, Moi's impassioned study never loses sight of the difficulty of Beauvoir's intellectual and personal journey through her life, it will send its readers back to Beauvoir's writings with a new sense of political necessity and possibility for women."--Professor Jacqueline Rose, University of London

UNEDITED UK REVIEW: "Review from previous edition This book makes us discover a Beauvoir analysed with sympathy but without complaisance. A worthy Beauvoir emerges: not the super-woman one so often hears about, but a complex, suffering woman who finds it hard to be different except in her jealousy and sorrow. But, what strength and what courage! She opened the way, and this book does her justice."--Julia Kristeva

UNEDITED UK REVIEW: "Sympathetic and critical, Moi's impassioned study never loses sight of the difficulty of Beauvoir's intellectual and personal journey through her life, it will send its readers back to Beauvoir's writings with a new sense of political necessity and possibility for women."--Professor Jacqueline Rose, University of London

"Thoroughly absorbing, this second edition of the most authoritative and comprehensive analysis of how Beauvoir became the emblematic intellectual woman of the 20th century is nothing less than brilliant...Moi blends biography, literary criticism, feminist theory, and social and historical analysis into an admirably clear work of impeccable scholarship...Essential." --Choice

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 1 edition (November 25, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 063119181X
• ISBN-13: 978-0631191810
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,496,752 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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