Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter [Paperback]

A superb autobiography by one of the great literary figures of the twentieth century,Simone de Beauvoir'sMemoirs of a Dutiful Daughteroffers an intimate picture of growing up in a bourgeois French family, rebelling as an adolescent against the conventional expectations of her class, and striking out on her own with an intellectual and existential ambition exceedingly rare in a young woman in the 1920s.

She vividly evokes her friendships, love interests, mentors, and the early days of the most important relationship of her life, with fellow student Jean-Paul Sartre, against the backdrop of a turbulent political time.

It is a book that will leave no one indifferent, and no one affected in quite the same way.[Beauvoirs] graciously written memoirs carry distinct appeal in recording the emotional and intellectual birth pangs of a fascinating woman.This is perhaps the best piece of writing Mlle. de Beauvoir has yet done; the translator does it justice.