Tete-A-Tete: The Tumultuous Lives and Loves of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre (P.S.) - Softcover

Rowley, Hazel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060520604 ISBN 13: 9780060520601

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2006

Synopsis

"Enthralling . . . Here we find an ugly, walleyed existentialist philosopher, the elegantly beautiful author of The Second Sex and the Gallic equivalent of a bevy of young starlets who share the bed of one or the other--or sometimes both. Readers will turn these pages alternately mesmerized and appalled." -- Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World

Passionate, freethinking existentialist philosopher-writers Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre are one of the world's legendary couples. Their committed but notoriously open union generated no end of controversy in their day. Biographer Hazel Rowley offers the first dual portrait of these two colossal figures and their intense, often embattled relationship. Through original interviews and access to new primary sources, Rowley portrays Sartre and Beauvoir up close.

Tête-à-Tête magnificently details the passion, daring, humor, and contradictions of a remarkably unorthodox relationship.

About this title

Product Description:

Tete-A-Tete Passionate, freethinking existentialist philosopher-writers Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre are one of the world's legendary couples. Their committed but notoriously open union generated no end of controversy in their day. Biographer Hazel Rowley offers the first dual portrait of these two colossal figures and their intense, often embattled relationship. Through original interviews and acc... Full description

Review:

"Enormously rich and utterly absorbing . . . a short, concise, penetrating look into the famous couple who changed their century."--Brenda Maddox

"[A] sympathetic but clear-eyed history of Sartre and Beauvoir's lifelong partnership."--New York Times

"Compulsively readable... The surprise page-turner of the season... [A] fascinating study of a passion that transcended convention."--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"An in-depth, unflinching account . . . TETE-A-TETE provides a valuable cultural history."--Boston Globe

"Exhilirating."--Houston Chronicle

"Engrossing... Tells Beauvoir and Sartre's repellent, inspiring and unlikely tale more completely and concisely than it has ever been told."--New York Times Book Review

"TETE-A-TETE has just about everything... Hard as I tried, I could not put it down."--Barbara Ehrenreich

"Fascinating . . . A neatly assembled record of people behaving badly in the name of literature, philosophy and amour."--Kirkus Reviews

"Compulsively readable . . . The surprise page-turner of the season . . . An admiring but balanced portrait emerges of activist intellectuals determined to practice the freedom they preached . . . [A] fascinating study of a passion that transcended convention."--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Tête-a-Tête has just about everything: sex, philosophy, politics and the world's most unconventional love story. Hard as I tried, I could not put it down."--Barbara Ehrenreich

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0060520604
• ISBN 13: 9780060520601
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464