Franklin Library: SIGNED 60: SIMONE De BEAUVOIR: SECOND SEX: FRENCH FEMINISM

Description: Franklin Library leather edition of Simone De Beauvoir's "The Second Sex," Translated and edited by H. M.Parshley, Illustrated by Eugene Karlin, a Limited edition, one of the SIGNED 60 series, Personally signed by SIMONE De BEAUVOIR, signature protected by onion skin tissue paper, published in 1977. Bound in hunter green leather, the book has blue/gray moire silk end leaves, acid-free paper, Symth-sewn bind, hubbed spine, a satin book marker, gold gilding on three edge--in near FINE condition. Simone de Beauvoir, who lived from 1908-1986, was a French existentialist, philosopher, writer, social theorist and feminist activist. Beauvoir wrote novels, essays, biographies, autobiographies and monographs on philosophy, politics, and theory. Her 1949 treatise, "The Second Sex" is a detailed analysis of women's oppression. In a 'special message' to subscribers, she wrote: "I was nearing my forties when I undertook to write "The Second Sex." I had never, personally, suffered on account of my feminine condition. The men whom I most respected had always considered me their equal. . .yet I realized my childhood and adolescence were unlike those of boys. . ." Though her parents, especially her father, disapproved, Beauvoir became a student of philosophy and literature at the Sorbonne, eventually receiving a degree and a license to teach. Meanwhile she met a group of philosophy students, one of who was JEAN-PAUL SARTRE, who had a loud singing voice. In Paris in the 1920s and 1930s they became partners in a fine union---though they often lived apart. On the coming of the war in 1939, Beauvoir wrote: "Night was falling over the earth and entering our very bones." Sartre joined the army, but when the Germans entered France, he was taken prisoner. Sartre escaped the Germans and returned to Paris and became active in the Resistance. In 1949, the book sold 22,000 copies in one week and set off an enormous public controversy. The subject is the condition of women in a "man's world." She writes: "Young boys are taught that they are superior to girls and the boys are encouraged to take pride in their "manhood, "incarnated in their penis." "Mothers and nurses feel no reverence or tenderness toward her genitals; they do not direct her attention toward that secret organ, invisible except for its covering, and not to be grasped in the hand; in a sense she has no sex organ." Beauvoir devoted some space in the book to the problem of abortion and the political right, of course, was outraged. Beauvoir discusses "arranged marriages"---even in the 20th century. "The Second Sex" was put on the Catholic Index and even the Communists and Marxists were displeased. When the book reached the U.S. in 1953 it actually achieved a dignified success. Her father was a lawyer and a passionate amateur actor, but he practiced a "double standard." Her mother was dutiful, quiet, moderate, and undemanding. Simone like to teach her younger sister Poupette how to do things, and decided thus to become a teacher and not to marry. She noticed that a mother was always with her husband and had too many tasks to perform. She was known for her open, lifelong relationship with French philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre. In Chapter twenty-five, Beauvoir writes: "According to French law, obedience is no longer included among the duties of a wife, and each women citizen has the right to vote; but these civil liberties remain theoretical as long as they are unaccompanied by economic freedom. A woman supported by a man---wife or courtesan--- is not emancipated from the male. . ." One reviewer wrote: "Revolutionary and incendiary, The Second Sex is one of the earliest attempts to confront human history from a feminist perspective. Today, many regard this massive and meticulously researched masterwork as not only as pillar of feminist thought but of twentieth-century philosophy in general. De Beauvoir’s primary thesis is that men fundamentally oppress women by characterizing them, on every level, as the Other, defined exclusively in opposition to men. Man occupies the role of the self, or subject; woman is the object, the other. He is essential, absolute, and transcendent. She is inessential, incomplete, and mutilated. He extends out into the world to impose his will on it, whereas woman is doomed to immanence, or inwardness. He creates, acts, invents; she waits for him to save her. This distinction is the basis of all de Beauvoir’s later arguments." Beauvoir was awarded the 1954 Prix Goncourt, the 1975 Jerusalem prize, and the 1978 Austrian State Prize for European Literature. 715 pages, including an Index---a RARE title! I offer combine shipping.

Price: 299.95 USD

Location: Walnut Ridge, Arkansas

End Time: 2025-01-04T00:40:41.000Z

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