Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) was a striking French philosopher who, working in the areas of politics and ethics, addressed her generation of left-wing intellectuals with existentialist, Marxist and feminist ideas. As a thinker and literary writer, her work builds up a graphic picture of the French intellectual scene for almost 40 years.

Her long complex affair with Jean Paul Sartre, which began when she was 21 and lasted until his death, enormously influenced the way she ...