The Second Sex [Paperback]

Simone de Beauvoir (Author), Constance Borde (Translator), Sheila Malovany-Chevallier (Translator)

Book Description

Release date: May 3, 2011

Newly translated and unabridged in English for the first time, Simone de Beauvoir’s masterwork is a powerful analysis of the Western notion of “woman,” and a groundbreaking exploration of inequality and otherness.  This long-awaited new edition reinstates significant portions of the original French text that were cut in the first English translation. Vital and groundbreaking, Beauvoir’s pioneering and impressive text remains as pertinent today as it was sixty years ago, and will continue to provoke and inspire generations of men and women to come.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The effect of the new translation, which should be applauded, is to make Beauvoir more herself. . . still lively, still apropos." --Slate

“This is the edition Beauvoir herself would have wanted, one so true to the original that we can hear her voice in the text. Borde and Malovany-Chevallier’s new translation is long overdue, and it is a triumph.” —Margaret Simons, Distinguished Research Professor Emerita, Southern Illinois University

“[Borde and Malovany-Chevallier’s translation] can be read with confidence, enlightenment, and pleasure. . . . A significant step forward and a remarkable achievement. So if you’re one of those people who always meant to read The Second Sex—why not now?” —Women’s Review of Books
 
“From Eve’s apple to Virginia Woolf’s room of her own, Beauvoir’s treatise remains an essential rallying point, urging self-sufficiency and offering the fruit of knowledge.”
—Vogue

"[A] long-awaited achievement." –"Book Bench," newyorker.com

About the Author

Simone de Beauvoir was born in Paris in 1908. In 1929 she became the youngest person ever to obtain the agrégation in philosophy at the Sorbonne, placing second to Jean-Paul Sartre. She taught at lycées at Marseille and Rouen from 1931 to 1937, and in Paris from 1938 to 1943. After the war, she emerged as one of the leaders of the existentialist movement, working with Sartre on Les Temps Modernes. The author of several books, including The Mandarins (1957), which was awarded the Prix Goncourt, Beauvoir was one of the most influential thinkers of her generation. She died in 1986.

Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier, both American, are longtime residents of France and former teachers at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris.

Judith Thurman, author of Isak Dinesen and Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette, is a staff writer at The New Yorker.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 832 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; 1 edition (May 3, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 030727778X
• ISBN-13: 978-0307277787
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.3 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Movements > Existentialism
  • #8 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Women's Studies > Feminist Theory
  • #96 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Gender Studies

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The New Translation is Welcome! November 29, 2010

By brett

Format:Hardcover

A previous review has noted some weaknesses in this translation, which I think are a bit one sided. Cetainly, Toril Moi raises some valid points in her critique of this translation - however, I think these are stylistic issues and translator's preferences. Indeed, there is rarely a "true" translation of a book, and opinions will always differ as to their quality. What I will say is that this book is infinitely better than the first translation, especially with its use of philosophical/existentialist terminology.

I gave this book five stars because I think it is so much better than the original translation. Even though the translators may have made poor choices in parts, they have also restored a great deal of the book that was previously inaccessible in English editions. As to the criticism about the style of the book, I must disagree. I think the book is extremely readable, and had no trouble reading through in its entirety.

Moving briefly away from the translation on to the content, this is a must have book for anyone interested not only in feminism, but also existentialism more generally. This book is for both men and women seeking to live an authentic (gendered) life. As a piece of history it is also important. Though the ideas presented her may no longer seem revolutionary, they were when this book was written. Of course, parts of the book have not aged well as science has advanced, but it does not detract from the greatness of the book.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars SEX AS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT: July 8, 2011

By Vakunta

Format:Paperback

French feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir argues in her book Le deuxième sexe (1949:13) that gender is a social construct: "On ne naît pas femme: on le devient. Aucun destin biologique, psychique, économique ne définit la figure que revęt au sein de la société la femelle humaine; c'est l'ensemble de la civilisation qui élabore ce produit intermédiaire entre le mâle et le castrat qu'on qualifie de féminin. »[One is not born, but rather becomes a woman. No biological, pschological, or economic fate determines the figure that the human female presents in society; it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature, intermediate between male and eunuch, which is described as feminine] [v].

De Beauvoir underscores the role played by prejudice in the oppression of women in contemporary societies. She points out that the key to understanding how girls develop as opposed to boys is to be found not in any "myth of the second sex" but in the manner of their upbringing in a society geared toward male supremacy. In other words, women consider themselves inferior because men regard them as such. Beauvoir offers her views on the subtle ways in which matrimony has often been made to work to the detriment of women. She perceives marriage as a male contraption to perpetuate gender inequality when she notes:« Le mariage s'est toujours présenté de manière radicalement différente pour l'homme et pour la femme.... Les deux sexes sont nécessaires l'un à l'autre, mais cette nécessité n'a jamais engendré entre eux de réciprocité ; jamais les femmes n'ont constitué une caste établissant avec la caste mâle sur un pied d'égalité des échanges et des contrats. Socialement l'homme est un individu autonome et complet ....On a vu pour quelles raisons le rôle reproducteur et domestique dans lequel est cantonnée la femme ne lui a pas garanti une égale dignité. » (196) [Mariage has always been a very different thing for man and for woman. The two sexes are necessary to each other, but this necessity has never brought about a condition of reciprocity between them; women, as we have seen, have never constituted a caste making exchanges and contracts with the male caste upon a footing of equality. A man is socially an independent and complete individual .... We have seen why it is that the reproductive and domestic role to which woman is confined has not guaranteed her an equal dignity] [vi].

I argue along with De Beauvoir and other feminists that the second-class status to which women the world over have been confined is a social construct. I further contend that gender discourse needs to be revisited and debated around address issues that center on gender equality. Finally, I posit that the African woman, in particular, is in dire need of proper education in order to fight male oppression. It is my conviction that a woman's consciousness of her own femininity is to be defined under circumstances dependent on the society of which she is a member. Indeed, a major thesis of De Beauvoir's book is that all her life the woman is to find the magic of her mirror a tremendous help in her effort to assert herself in order to attain self-liberation. It is in the context of their natural differences that men and women must validate their commonality.

Dr. Peter Vakunta is a specialist in French and Francophone literatures. Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Some Reviews of The Second Sex appearing here are NOT about the Borde and Malovany-Chevallier translation March 9, 2013

By Marcel Louis

Format:Paperback

The Borde and Malovany translation first appeared in 2010. Some of the reviews here, complaining about the translation, are about an earlier edition (translated by someone else). Among other corrections, the Borde and Malovany-Chevallier translation reinstates a large section - over 700 pages - that the original translator left out.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading for Men and Women Both February 12, 2013

By frankjpeter

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This tome is no mere women's lib manual. It is a deep examination of the very real existential problems faced by half of the human race. It is required reading for anyone, male or female, who wishes to fully appreciate the total situation of a woman's life.

De Beauvoir's exploration of womanhood is not a cheap and disingenuous feminism. There are no easy answers here. Whether you are man or woman, her radical honesty will impose upon you an uncomfortable awakening. You will be challenged to reconsider and transcend your personhood on your own terms... and in the face of so many insidious forces opposed to your self-actualization.

The Second Sex is a call for the liberation of both sexes, an invitation that remains open and unfulfilled more than sixty years after its publication.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars About women in a man's world January 31, 2013

By Marlene Luce Tremblay

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Simone de Beauvoir's book is still relevant today and even more so in light of what is happening now on the international arena.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Plea for Equality December 22, 2012

By Martin Asiner

Format:Paperback

Those who read The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir are really reading one of two versions. In 1953, H. M. Parshley translated from the French for an American audience. He did a perfectly wretched job as his mastery of French was pedantic at best. Much of the essence of de Beauvoir's original thought was either mistranslated or simply excised. The publishing company Alfred Knopf insisted that there was nothing wrong with Parshley's version and that, despite De Beauvoir's pleading for a competent translation, there was no need for a revision. It was not until 2009 that a fresh re-translation by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany Chevalier made available to a long awaiting reading audience the howl of gender pain that Simone de Beauvoir had unleashed after a lifetime of suffering under an oppressive patriarchal hegemony.

Once one reads The Second Sex (hopefully the latter revision), then one can trace the historical causes of a male bashing of women that is rooted in a myriad of discrete sectors of gender interaction: patrimony, menstruation, pregnancy, abortion, reproductive rights, and economic disequilibrium just to name a few. The methodology that de Beauvoir uses is the broad historical and sociological sweep, one that begins with what she terms "Facts and Myths." Here she examines a triangular vortex of biology, history and myth, all of which intersect and coalesce over three millennia to produce the current sad state of depressed feminism against which she railed following the Second World War. In the book's second volume "Lived Experiences," de Beauvoir outlines the genesis of a patriarchal imprinting on young and impressionable feminine minds that leads them down a path that encourages them to accept the status quo of women forcefully designated as The Other.... This "Other" de Beauvoir deems a male construct, specifically created to perpetuate the view that males and females are inherently unlike. Males are Subjects and therefore transcendent. They exist by and for themselves and are complete in themselves. Women are Objects and therefore imminent. They exist as psychological, social, and sexual appendages to men without whom their collective existences would have no meaning. Transcendent males can look outward at an infinity of male-designated possibilities. Imminent females must not dare to look with eyes raised upwards at a male pantheon of destiny. De Beauvoir suggests that males can maintain this eternal stranglehold on the female mind via reciprocity. This term sounds harmless enough. It even sounds eminently fair. After all, it implies that when a male scratches a female back, she need do no more than scratch back in return. The problem, of course, is that reciprocity is one-sided. Men deliver a message of male superiority and women absorb it, thinking all the while that this is no more than The Way Things Are Meant To Be. And when women sublimate this invidious message, right then and there is also created the mystique of the Feminine Essence, immortal, inscrutable, and indefinable. There is no concomitant Masculine Essence. Men can therefore feel free to poke about in any woman's mind totally heedless of caution. One of the great ironies of patriarchal hegemony is that this Feminine Essence is a words-only essence. It hides nothing; it contains nothing. It is a psychological club used to bash women to keep them in line. What is de Beauvoir's solution to ending this uneven stalemate? She notes there is no single answer except perhaps for women to refashion and reorder their own internal self-image as autonomous beings who demand that men see them as such.

Even with the publication of the revised edition of The Second Sex, not all feminists have rallied under de Beauvoir's tent. More than a few have noted what on the surface seems a thinly disguised self-loathing and disgust toward the biological necessities of womanhood like menstruation and pregnancy. Such critics have further noted her deeply rooted distrust toward men and marriage. Now all this may have some truth embedded but even so, if readers take de Beauvoir's word for it that men have been too successful for far too long at creating a false and self-serving image of woman as the imminent Other, then readers may well empathize with one woman who can find it within herself to lash out at injustice even as she chafes under it. Read more ›