Force of Circumstance

Simone de Beauvoir [ 1908 - 1986), was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and social issues. She is best known for her metaphysical novels, including She Came to Stay and The Mandarins, and for her 1949 treatise The Second Sex, a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism. She is also noted for her lifelong polyamorous relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre. She was born in Paris. Her younger sister, Helene, was born two years later. The family struggled to maintain their bourgeois status after losing much of their fortune shortly after World War I, and Francoise insisted that the two daughters be sent to a prestigious convent school. She was deeply religious as a child-at one point intending to become a nun-until a crisis of faith at age 14. She remained an atheist for the rest of her life. She was intellectually precocious from a young age. After passing exams in mathematics and philosophy in 1925, she studied mathematics and literature/languages at the Institut Sainte-Marie. She studied philosophy , and first worked with Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Claude Levi-Strauss when all three completed their practice teaching requirements at the same secondary school. It was while studying for the agregation that she met Ecole Normale students Sartre, Paul Nizan, and Rene Maheu The jury for the agregation narrowly awarded Sartre first place instead of Beauvoir, who placed second and, at age 21, was the youngest person ever to pass the exam. She and Sartre became lifelong intellectual and romantic partners, although they both rejected monogamy. She would have romantic relationships with both men and women, most notably including Jacques-Laurent Bost, Nelson Algren, and Claude Lanzmann. She started her teaching career at a secondary school in Marseilles in 1931