If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- Did you know that newly discovered private diaries reveal a hidden side of Simone de Beauvoir that challenges everything we thought we knew about her legendary relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre?
- Have you ever wondered what it truly takes to "become" yourself in a world that has already decided who you should be?
- What’s the secret to maintaining your intellectual independence while navigating one of the most scrutinized and unconventional lives of the twentieth century?
Listen to Becoming Beauvoir — Free Audiobook
Loading player...
Key Takeaways from Becoming Beauvoir
- Discover how Simone de Beauvoir’s philosophical ideas were distinctly her own, even predating some of Jean-Paul Sartre’s most famous existentialist concepts.
- Understand how growing up with a devout Catholic mother and an atheist father exposed Beauvoir to profound philosophical differences that ignited her intellectual drive.
- Explore how early Christian teachings regarding the equality of all souls before God laid the foundational groundwork for Beauvoir’s pioneering feminist ideals.
- Find out how her childhood admiration for Louisa May Alcott's 'Little Women' inspired her to reject traditional domestic roles in favor of pursuing intellectual 'love-friendships' based on true equality.
- Learn how observing society's unjust gender double standards eroded Beauvoir's faith, leading her to formulate the core existentialist belief that our own actions define who we are.
Learning Tools
Reinforce what you learned from Becoming Beauvoir
Mind Map
Becoming Beauvoir
Correcting the Legacy
Unfairly dismissed as Sartre's shadow due to 20th-century sexism
Her unpublished journals prove her existential concepts predated Sartre's
Claude Lanzmann, not Sartre, received her deepest romantic devotion
Childhood Influences
Parents' Catholic-Atheist divide introduced her to philosophical debate early
Christian concepts of equality before God informed her early feminism
Inspired by Jo March's drive to learn over traditional housework
Sought a 'love-friendship' based strictly on intellectual equality
Loss of Faith & Existential Awakening
Hypocritical gender standards and a traumatic incident eroded her faith
Replaced religion with the existential belief that actions define us
Retained a prophet-like calling to share useful ideas with others
The Lourdes Epiphany (1926)
Witnessing sick invalids at Lourdes inspired a moral code of empathy
Rejected total self-sacrifice for a balance of self-fulfillment and generosity
Believed literature bridges the gap between abstract philosophy and real life
Relationship with Sartre
Passed the agrégation exam younger than Sartre, proving intellectual equality
Agreed to an open relationship with multiple 'contingent loves'
Jealousy over students like Olga Kosakiewicz proved relationships need careful tending
Exploitative power dynamics with female students later marred their reputations
Philosophical Divergence
Sartre claimed everyone has freedom to transcend unchosen circumstances
Beauvoir countered that systemic oppression removes the actual power to choose
Questioned how oppressed people, like a woman in a harem, could transcend
The Ethics of Freedom
Sartre lacked an ethical framework for how to use personal freedom
Rejected Sartre's nihilism, arguing a world without coexistence is miserable
Our actions continuously create the conditions in which others must live
Core philosophy: Seek individual freedom, but exercise it ethically for others
Quiz — Test Your Understanding
Question 1 of 7
According to recent discoveries in Simone de Beauvoir’s unpublished journals, how did her philosophical ideas relate to Jean-Paul Sartre’s?
Becoming Beauvoir — Full Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: Recommendation
Chapter 2: Simone de Beauvoir was misrepresented for her entire life.
Chapter 3: The roots of Beauvoir’s philosophy were there even in childhood.
Chapter 4: Her relationship with faith shaped Beauvoir’s philosophy.
Chapter 5: An experience during the summer of 1926 left a lasting mark on Beauvoir’s philosophy.
Chapter 6: Simone de Beauvoir’s early meeting with Sartre was meaningful, but not earthshaking.
Chapter 7: Beauvoir’s open relationship with Sartre, while crucial to her, stirred complex feelings and also had darker aspects.
Chapter 8: Beauvoir disagreed with an essential element of Sartre’s philosophy.
Chapter 9: The question of an ethical existence is what defined Beauvoir’s life and work.
Becoming Beauvoir Summary & Overview
Becoming Beauvoir (2019) recounts the story of French philosopher, writer and feminist icon Simone de Beauvoir for a contemporary audience. Making use of previously unpublished letters and diaries, Becoming Beauvoir describes how the famous intellectual became herself.
Who Should Listen to Becoming Beauvoir?
- Those interested in feminism and gender studies
- Budding existentialists
- Philosophy students
Books Similar to Becoming Beauvoir
Readers who enjoyed this also liked these titles.
The Second Sex
★ 4.4 / 5 • 218 ratingsThe feminist classic about how woman has been shaped into the “other” sex
On Being and Becoming
★ 4.6 / 5 • 511 ratingsAn Existentialist Approach to Life
Becoming Myself
★ 3.8 / 5 • 139 ratingsA Psychiatrist's Memoir
At The Existentialist Café
★ 4.6 / 5 • 230 ratingsFreedom, Being and Apricot Cocktails