The Second Sex
by Simone de Beauvoir · Le Deuxième Sexe
Assigned by 4 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1949
- Form
- Treatise
- Language
- French
- Length
- Epic · 800 ppover 700 pages
- Difficulty
- Demanding3 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendThe Second Sex, translated by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-ChevallierVintage, 2011The first complete English translation; the older Parshley version cut about a tenth of the text.
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A two-volume study of what it has meant to be a woman. The first volume examines the facts and myths, arguing from biology, psychoanalysis, historical materialism, history and literature that woman has been defined as the Other in relation to man as the essential subject. The second follows a woman's life from childhood through sexual initiation, marriage, motherhood and old age, and considers the narcissist, the woman in love and the mystic before turning to the independent woman. Its best-known sentence holds that one is not born a woman but becomes one.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns The Second Sex are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
