First published 1963
Simone de Beauvoir's coming-of-age memoir paints a vivid portrait of her stifling upbringing in a French bourgeois family. As a bright, headstrong adolescent, she chafes against the conventional expectations of her class, finding solace in intellectual pursuits and a burgeoning romance with a fellow student. Against the backdrop of 1920s Paris, Beauvoir charts her path towards independence, forging her own identity as a woman with towering ambition in a world that rarely afforded such freedom. Her intimate recollections capture the thrill and challenge of breaking free, navigating new relationships and ideas that will shape the rest of her life.
Genres: french-literature, literary-fiction, 20th-century, feminism, coming-of-age, autobiography, biography-memoir
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water
Setting: France, Paris (France)
Period: 20th century
384 pages · Paperback · Harper Perennial Modern Classics