Becoming Beauvoir

The first biography of Simone de Beauvoir since publication of her letters and early diaries, and the newly published letters to her lover Claude Lanzmann, which sheds new light on her relationship with Jean Paul Sartre

A book to be read slowly and savoured. There’s too much detail to gulp it down. But it is worth the time it takes to read a fascinating portrait of a woman who inspired women around the world and who changed the way many people think.

[Kirkpatrick] gives more space to De Beauvoir’s contrary relationship with feminism, and the discussion here is helpfully rich ... The letters to Lanzmann do constitute a major new resource ... Where Kirkpatrick’s biography is strongest is in clarifying and showing the strength of De Beauvoir’s ethical commitments, and how these were transformed into political commitments after the war.

4 stars ... Illuminating.

Kirkpatrick's biography is an exercise in meticulous research. Using newly published diaries – only recently made available to researchers – it refuses simple characterisations and reveals de Beauvoir in all her brilliance and complexity ... Becoming Beauvoir is a beautiful tribute to a remarkable woman.

Fascinating and deeply researched.

Kirkpatrick offers a far more detailed and analytical account of de Beauvoir's philosophy than any previous biography ... Kirkpatrick's essential achievement here is to have related Simone de Beauvoir's logic to her life ... This is the best Beauvoir biography yet.

In her excellent new biography, Kate Kirkpatrick [..] shows us why we've much more to learn from Beauvoir.

In Kirkpatrick’s biography, Beauvoir is restored to her full body of work, her full complexity, her full bravery – so much more than one misquoted line.

An admirable biography probing beneath the surface of misogynistic predecessors and exposing the complexities and contradictions of this extraordinary woman.

While she advocates for de Beauvoir, contesting various criticisms, she allows complexity...Meticulously and engagingly, Kirkpatrick catches myriad "instants" of the flux behind the icon.

Kirkpatrick has trawled fastidiously through her commentaries, diaries and, significantly, the interviews she gave towards the end of her life. The result is a rich rediscovery of this inspirational feminist, philosopher and existentialist. It will spark a whole new love affair since such politically-aware feminists remain thin on the ground – and more needed than ever.

[An] accessible and enjoyable resource for a wide audience … Becoming Beauvoir gives sensitive treatment to issues that have troubled feminists: Beauvoir’s polyamory; the damage caused by her early liaisons with younger women; and her ambivalent attitude toward the philosophical content of her own oeuvre. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

A comprehensive and revealing approach to the life of the French philosopher and writer

This powerful, important book offers a necessary and radical, new, evidence-based reading of Simone de Beauvoir’s life and work. It unpicks and undermines the extraordinary torrent of belittling and sexist criticism that has been directed at Beauvoir, both in her lifetime and since, and recovers her from Jean-Paul Sartre’s shadow to bring her to stand in her own light. This haunting, scholarly, and compelling biography lingers long in the reader’s mind.

Do we need another biography on Simone de Beauvoir? Definitely! Here we finally have a biography that makes Beauvoir’s philosophical ideas the focal point – not her love life. Based on new material, and written with insight, respect and sympathy, Kate Kirkpatrick re-examines Beauvoir’s life and demonstrates how it was guided by her own existentialist ideals as well as twisted by her circumstances. A timely and fascinating book!

Beautifully written and meticulously researched, Kirkpatrick draws on new material to find contradictions in previous accounts of Simone de Beauvoir’s biography, including those from Beauvoir herself. Becoming Beauvoir is essential reading for anyone interested not just in Beauvoir’s life, but the philosophy within it.

Beauvoir is well overdue for the philosophical credit she deserves, and this book is an important step in correcting the narrative.

Kate Kirkpatrick is Lecturer in Religion, Philosophy and Culture at King’s College London, UK. She is the author of several books on Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.