Adieux: A Farewell to SartreFrom the Dust Jacket: In Adieux: A Farewell to Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir uses Jean-Paul Sartre's last ten years as a focus for understanding his entire life. Through her eyes, we see an intimate portrait of the man who was widely recognized as one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century-the foremost philosopher of existentialism, a Nobel Prize-winning playwright, and a central figure in almost every major philosophical, political, literary, and social issue of our time. De Beauvoir was Sartre's closet friend, his intellectual companion, and, intermittently, his lover, from his early twenties until his death. It is she who tells his story in Adieux. She begins with a year-by-year memoir of Sartre's last decade: his political involvements, his work on Flaubert, his friendships, his relationship with her, his slow demise. The second and longer part of the book is a conversation between Sartre and De Beauvoir about his entire life and work. Unguarded, lucid, and incisive, Sartre talks about the origins of his philosophy, the inspiration for his fiction, and the conviction behind his activism. But more than a philosophical book, Adieux is a personal dialogue of astonishing candor. Sartre openly discusses his relationships with women-a subject which seems to pain De Beauvoir even now; his ugliness; his fear of passion. And in one of the most moving passages in Adieux, De Beauvoir anticipates Sartre's death. She knows he is dying, but she cannot tell him. Existentialism's acceptance of death does not console her. Adieux reveals the inner Sartre and the inner De Beauvoir, and illuminates one of the most extraordinary relationships of our century. |
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Page 36
... nature . Sartre maintained that whether he liked it or not , in his way Aranda was " an agent of direct democracy . " In November he embarked upon an undertaking that attracted him very much a series of conversations with two leftist ...
... nature . Sartre maintained that whether he liked it or not , in his way Aranda was " an agent of direct democracy . " In November he embarked upon an undertaking that attracted him very much a series of conversations with two leftist ...
Page 298
... nature . But let's go back to what I looked for in women . I think it was above all an atmosphere of feeling , of sentiment . Not of sexuality properly so - called , but of feeling , with a sexual background . DE BEAUVOIR : You had an ...
... nature . But let's go back to what I looked for in women . I think it was above all an atmosphere of feeling , of sentiment . Not of sexuality properly so - called , but of feeling , with a sexual background . DE BEAUVOIR : You had an ...
Page 349
... nature is frail - it appears and it can disappear . It is at this level that we see the self - assertion of freedom , which is the very state of this consciousness and the way in which it is aware of itself , being given by nothing . It ...
... nature is frail - it appears and it can disappear . It is at this level that we see the self - assertion of freedom , which is the very state of this consciousness and the way in which it is aware of itself , being given by nothing . It ...
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action active appeared asked BEAUVOIR began beginning believe better brought called carried Cause certain certainly coming Communist concerned connection consciousness conversation course deal death didn't don't example exist fact feel felt France freedom friends future gave give given hand happened idea important interested it's Italy kind knew later less literature living longer looked lunch mean meant meeting months morning nature never object once Paris particular past perhaps period person philosophy play political possess present prison published question reason relations remember SARTRE seemed short side socialism sometimes speak spent spoke stayed stories Sylvie taken talk tell there's things thought told took turned understand Victor walk wanted whole women writing written wrote young