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Title: She Came to Stay by Simone De Beauvoir, Simone de Beauvoir, Marlo Morgan ISBN: 0-393-31884-2 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 July, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: A riveting study of jealousy
Comment: This is Simone's first published novel and writing this book removed her own writer's block and enabled her to go on to win the Prix Goncourt and, of course, write "The Second Sex." While it is hardly "feminist," after all, the main woman character has an intellectually intimate but apparently sexless relationship with a man who rules her life, it is a woman's book. How many women, involved in a triangle, have wanted to eliminate their rival? While Simone left her real life rival unharmed, her alter ego Francoise murders her rival. Based on the trio well-known to readers of Simone's memoirs, this is a flawed but still enjoyable work. First of all, it is a little too quotidian. We know that Simone was a work-a-holic who parceled out her day into writing and confering with J-P, but that sort of lifestyle is too accurately portrayed in this novel. Second, there seems to be a basic flaw in the "plot," that arises from the basic situation of the Sartre-de Beauvoir shared life and that is while both Francoise and Pierre can excuse their own sexual explorations, when their protege Xaviere exercises her own FREEDOM OF CHOICE (remember that slogan from the 60s? Not to choose is to choose? That was Sartre.), her elders discipline her. Why does Simone, a woman with impeccable philosophical credentials, contradict her own ontology? At the same time, this book accurately portrays some very real human emotions.
Rating: 4
Summary: a serious study of emotion and reason
Comment: While _The Mandarins_ is her most popular novel, _She Came to Stay_ offers another powerful writing of Simone De Beauvoir. She draws a delicate sketch of relationship between three characters of Francoise, Pierre and Xaviere, and reveals the complicated role of "reason" and "emotion" of an individual in his/her relations with other individuals. The story unfolds as supposedly ideal relationship between Francoise and Pierre based on "reason" is interfered by Xaviere, whose expressive nature both enchants and threatens them. They attempt an ambitious idea of building a "trio" in love, but all three end up experiencing emotional pains and intellectual confusions. It appears in a most dramatic way for Francoise, whose well-controlled jealousy and hatred throughout the book burst out as killing Xaviere in the end. Part I reads rather slow with a little too much details on Francoise's hidden emotions and thoughts and indirect descriptions of the psychological status of two other characters, but in Part II everything tightens up as the story focuses on Francoise's thoughts and actions. This is an impressive piece that makes a serious study of emotion and reason by almost "purely" focusing on human relations.
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Title: The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir ISBN: 0393318834 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 July, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Second Sex by Simone De Beauvoir ISBN: 0679724516 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 17 December, 1989 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Witness to My Life by Jean-Paul Sartre ISBN: 0743244052 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 21 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Woman Destroyed by Simone De Beauvoir ISBN: 0394711033 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 12 August, 1987 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir ISBN: 0060903511 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 29 June, 1974 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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