SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR Simone de Beauvoir was born in ... - Uberty

SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR

The Second Sex

Simone de Beauvoir was born in Paris in 1908. In 1929 she became

the youngest person ever to obtain the agr¨¦gation in philosophy at the

Sorbonne, placing second to Jean-Paul Sartre. She taught in lyc¨¦es in

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 many books, including the novel 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 have lived in Paris

for more than forty years and are both graduates of Rutgers

University, New Jersey. Borde and Malovany-Chevallier were faculty

members at the Institut d¡¯?tudes Politiques. They have been

translating books and articles on social science, art, and feminist

literature for many years and have jointly authored numerous books in

English and in French on subjects ranging from grammar to politics to

American cooking.

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FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, MAY 2011

Le deuxi¨¨me sexe copyright ? 1949 by ?ditions Gallimard, Paris

Translation copyright ? 2009 by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier

Introduction copyright ? 2010 by Judith Thurman

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of

Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited,

Toronto. Originally published in France in two volumes as Le deuxi¨¨me sexe: Les faits

et les mythes (Vol. 1) and L¡¯exp¨¦rience v¨¦cue (Vol. 11) by ?ditions Gallimard, Paris.

Copyright ? 1949 by ?ditions Gallimard, Paris. This translation originally published

in hardcover in slightly different form in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape, The Random

House Group Ltd., London, in 2009, and subsequently published in hardcover in the

United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in

2010.

Vintage and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows:

Beauvoir, Simone de, 1908¨C1986.

[Deuxi¨¨me sexe. English]

The second sex / Simone de Beauvoir ; translated by Constance Borde and

Sheila Malovany Chevallier.

p. cm.

1. Women. I. Borde, Constance. II. Malovany-Chevallier, Sheila. III. Title.

HQ1208.B352 2010

305.401¡ªdc22

2009023164

eISBN: 978-0-307-81453-1



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To Jacques Bost

There is a good principle that created

order, light, and man

and a bad principle that created

chaos, darkness, and woman.

¡ª PYTHAGORAS

Everything that has been written by men

about women should be viewed with suspicion,

because they are both judge and party.

¡ªPOULAIN DE LA BARRE

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