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The Prime of Life: The Second Volume of Her Autobiography

by Simone de Beauvoir , Peter Green (Translator)

4.13 of 5 stars 4.13 · rating details · 523 ratings · 29 reviews

The second volume in Simone de Beauvoir's autobiography. In it she continues the story of her life from the age of 21, through the uneasy rebellious 30s, the war years and finally to the liberation of Paris in 1944.

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Published 1973 by Penguin Books Ltd (first published January 1st 1940)

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Oct 23, 2011 Kristen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own , biography

If volume one of her memoirs made me fall completely in love with Simone de Beauvoir, then volume two is what always comes afterward, where those endearing quirks are seen for the faults they are, which doesn't make one love her any less, perhaps more even.

If you're looking for the dirt, this autobiography is hardly forthcoming, but she does offer some explanation of her emotions and motives, if you read between the lines, though she never mentions any juicy personal details, which might make y If volume one of her memoirs made me fall completely in love with Simone de Beauvoir, then volume two is what always comes afterward, where those endearing quirks are seen for the faults they are, which doesn't make one love her any less, perhaps more even.

If you're looking for the dirt, this autobiography is hardly forthcoming, but she does offer some explanation of her emotions and motives, if you read between the lines, though she never mentions any juicy personal details, which might make you want to run out a grab a biography with ALL the gossip, but if the author has firmly got her hooks in you by now, you probably won’t because it would seem sleazy. Yeah, I’m talking about the preternatural relationship with young girls, etc. It seems even at this age she was already preoccupied with the 'irreparable loss of youth' and I think chasing that lost youth underlies her weirdness with the youngsters. But hey, no one is perfect!

And yes, she’s sort of narcissistic (but I sort of think maybe it’s a required trait to make any way in this world, see that’s why I’m a failure, I’m just not self-centered enough.) She spent her youth and much of her young life believing that the world could only be understood through her senses and her superior mind alone. That others experience the exact same thing was nothing less than a revelation to her. Yet, I think this point of view is so very human and she is far more honest than most people for admitting this. It’s even humorous when, after young street urchins in a Greek slum throw stones at them, she explains it away simply as they were throwing stones at "tourists" and of course the kids' anger was not really directed at ‘us’. She so easily excludes herself from the social group to which she firmly belongs, but she also recognizes this error and that’s what makes her writing so interesting. The reader may cringe at how she justifies everything relating to her relationship with Sartre. While her examination of sexual attitudes that were taken for granted is interesting, I must wonder at the self denial/dishonesty this takes. Her internal conflict of body vs. mind and upbringing vs. philosophy are obviously reoccurring theme.

This is one of those books you have to decide how much time you really want to devote to looking up references, to literature, philosophy, film, theater and politics, which this book absolutely overflows with. Of course there is the historical significance and the famous people she knew. I found young Sartre's prediction that 'talkies' would never really take off funny, as well as his strange interests, like graphology, yet these were all within the trends of their times, like the Yo-yo craze which Sartre practiced morning to night at one point. I laughed at his experiment with LSD, which possibly led to his reoccurring delusions about a giant lobster stalking him (I feel for you Sartre, the single instance I took an hallucinogenic I also had had horrible time of it, no lobster though.)

I love how travel was so important to her, no matter how broke she was she managed through sheer thrift to see a large portion of Western Europe. I love how she would just take off alone for days or weeks, hiking through the Alps or across the French countryside with just some bread, sausage and canteen of wine (so French!) and no idea of her destination. I love reading about her and Sartre’s trips to Spain and Italy and Morocco, where they could only afford the cheapest deck crossing on ships and often slept in parks, or barns, or in ruins they where there to sightseeing. Later she takes up cycling and rides off a cliff face, twice, the second time losing a tooth and swelling her whole face so that only after two weeks when her facial swelling goes down does she realize her tooth is embedded in her face (which apparently is a thing that happens, my nephew cut his foot open in a lake this summer, it took a while to heal and after a month it was still itching, so he was picking at it and a shell popped out! He had been walking around with a part of zebra mussel shell in his foot for almost a month! In his defense, he’s only 7.)

This volume illuminates the birth of her political awareness. Up until the start of WW II she pays little notice to current events and politics, passing by strikes on her way to see tourist attraction without a thought. It is fascinating to watch as she gradually becomes more aware, for instance how she cries inconsolably during a visit to cousin’s factory at the working conditions. I thought the switching to her actual diary entries at start of the war and the fall of France was interesting, the frenzied tone embodies the uncertainly and excitement of the time. I like how the diary fades out as she becomes accustomed to war, as people do become accustomed to anything. Even her lust for travel is not stopped by the Nazi occupation though she decries the "chic refuges" that she only distinguish herself from by being broke, even as she remains the firmly part middle class as much as she hates to admit it. And her joy of experiencing the liberation of Paris is infectious. Even if you have no interest her life, philosophy and the exciting times she lived, this stands alone as a beautifully written narrative. I thought about giving this 5 stars but went with four, if only to separate it from the more superior first volume. I suppose I'll have to read the next one as well.
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Oct 09, 2010 Manny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: french

In the second volume of her memoirs, Simone de Beauvoir tells you what it was like to be a young woman living with Sartre. There were many interesting surprises. I hadn't realized what a natural gift for languages he had - there was an incident when someone thought he might be a spy, because his German accent was just too damn good. I hadn't realized either what a lot of fun he was (really! I'm not being ironic!), or that he was so mentally unstable. He had some rather startling delusions about, ...more

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Apr 26, 2011 Emily added it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011

After being blown away by the first volume of Simone de Beauvoir's memoirs last September, I knew I had to get to the second installment as soon as possible. Let me just say, it did not disappoint. Covering the years from 1929, when Beauvoir graduated from college and first lived on her own as an adult, through the development of her ideas and interpersonal relationships of the 1930s and into the war years to the liberation of Paris in 1944, La force de l'âge (translated into English as The Prim ...more

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Aug 26, 2012 Amélie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012 , france , non-fiction

« [...] je sais qu'on ne peut jamais se connaître mais seulement se raconter. » (p. 420)

J'ai fait la rencontre de Simone via ses Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée , lus une fois sans trop d'intérêt, puis redécouverts avec beaucoup d'enthousiasme il y a quoi, un an & demi? Comme quoi c'est pas parce qu'on relit un livre qu'on y trouve rien de nouveau.

J'avais énormément aimé Mémoires , & La force de l'âge reprend là où le premier tome s'était terminé. Nous sommes en 1929, Simone vient tout j « [...] je sais qu'on ne peut jamais se connaître mais seulement se raconter. » (p. 420)

J'ai fait la rencontre de Simone via ses Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée , lus une fois sans trop d'intérêt, puis redécouverts avec beaucoup d'enthousiasme il y a quoi, un an & demi? Comme quoi c'est pas parce qu'on relit un livre qu'on y trouve rien de nouveau.

J'avais énormément aimé Mémoires , & La force de l'âge reprend là où le premier tome s'était terminé. Nous sommes en 1929, Simone vient tout juste de passer l'agrégation qui lui permettra d'enseigner la philosophie ; elle passe le plus clair de son temps avec Sartre, & leurs vies sont déjà comme irrémédiablement, merveilleusement entremêlées. Leur relation tient une place centrale dans le récit que Simone fait de sa vie (si ce n'est que parce que Sartre est pratiquement toujours avec elle), mais, & c'est une chose qui m'a frappé, l'auteure n'essaie jamais d'expliquer l'intimité particulière qu'ils partagent, ou même d'y faire pénétrer le lecteur. Le lien qui les unit est présenté comme quelque chose qui va de soit, & qui n'a pas besoin d'être expliqué ; d'un autre côté, on saisit immédiatement toute l'ampleur de l'influence qu'ils ont l'un sur l'autre. Sans jamais vraiment comprendre ce que Simone faisait avec Sartre (qui m'a semblé, je sais pas, perpétuellement pédant & condescendant...?), j'ai pas pu m'empêcher d'éprouver une drôle de fascination frustrée pour le couple qu'ils forment dans La force de l'âge .

Mais il n'y a pas que Sartre dans ce deuxième tome des mémoires de Simone (...heureusement), tome qui couvre une période fertile, bouillonnante d'idées & de changements, de 1929 jusqu'en 1945. On assiste aux débuts de la carrière d'enseignante de l'auteure, tout d'abord dans des lycées de province, puis à Paris ; on a droit au récit de ses amitiés, à l'élargissement progressif de son cercle de connaissances dans le milieu intellectuelo-bohème qu'elle a choisi ; on la suit dans tous ses voyages à l'étranger & ses excursions en montagne, de longues randonnées où elle s'éreinte avec une passion grande comme ça. On apprend à connaître la France des années 30 -- la France, mais surtout Paris, dans descriptions où Simone mêle joliment la nostalgie qu'elle éprouve au moment de revisiter ses souvenirs & la fébrilité enthousiaste que les débuts de sa vraie vie d'adulte lui avaient, à l'époque, mis dans le coeur. Mais dès la fin de cette décennie il y a la guerre qui pointe, puis l'occupation, puis les privations & la frustration qui précèdent la libération. Avec toujours, en parallèle, l'éclosion d'une écrivaine & d'une intellectuelle, qui travaille de façon acharnée dans tous les coins de café qu'on veut bien lui laisser occuper.

C'est un gros livre épais, avec quelques longueurs pas toujours agréables -- je pense ici à tous les passages qui détaillent les avancées philosophiques de Sartre -- mais j'y ai pris un plaisir particulier, un plaisir tout en admiration pour un personnage aussi intéressant, qui sait se raconter sans fioritures ni excès. ...more

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Jul 21, 2015 Silvia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Apart from the fact that it is always fascinating to read about the life of a writer, especially if it's an autobiography (and, in this case, you get so much more than just Simone's life), and that the book mainly covers the years before and during WWII in Paris (fascinating read), the book is so well written and describes such an array of different things that I felt from the very first moment that this would be one of my favourite books ever, and so it is. Simone led a very interesting life, e ...more

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Jul 07, 2015 Maria rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir

The Prime of Life is Simone de Beauvoir's memoirs of her 20's and 30's in the pre-war and then occupied France until the liberation of Paris in 1944. She recollects her youth with Sartre and the bohemian circle of friends they were a part of. I found her style of writing very appealing - it is honest and simple, but there is also dignity in it that perhaps precludes her from writing too directly about her friends. She never claims to be a higher moral authority and there is little to no judgment The Prime of Life is Simone de Beauvoir's memoirs of her 20's and 30's in the pre-war and then occupied France until the liberation of Paris in 1944. She recollects her youth with Sartre and the bohemian circle of friends they were a part of. I found her style of writing very appealing - it is honest and simple, but there is also dignity in it that perhaps precludes her from writing too directly about her friends. She never claims to be a higher moral authority and there is little to no judgment in her stories about her young self and others.
Simone de Beauvoir is considered a mother of modern feminism, but this book has little of her views on it. Instead one can glimplse her philosophy in the way she lived and recollected her youth. When one considers the social conventions of her time, it becomes clear that her choice not to marry or live with a man, not to have children, to travel on her own through Europe, to remain independent both emotionally and financially required considerable courage. She does not seem burdened by the judgments of others, at least not as much as can be glimpsed in her writing.

I found her descriptions of travels through Europe particularly charming - she would put any backpacker and budget traveler to shame in 2015. She recollects sleeping in sheds and haystacks and on hotel roofs to cut down the expenses, hiking for miles to get to the next town, and spending all of her money so that she'd have nothing to buy a morsel of food with. She traveled with friends, acquaintances, and on her own on trains, buses, cars, bicycles and on foot carrying a simple rucksack and wearing cloth espadrilles to see places as they are, without the glamor of touristic attraction. She seems to have found cities, villages, treks through hills and mountains equally fascinating.
Equally engrossing are her tales of friendships with Sartre, and their close circle of friends, including Olga who became both her and Sartre's lover. Although de Beauvoir is not blunt on this subject, she does talk about the emotions that all three of them experienced, albeit somewhat indirectly. She also describes her relationships with some of her students and others who were close to her in one manner or another. I found the interludes about theatrical performances, books, and movies of the time hard to connect to, so I skipped over some of them. They made me realize that certain instances of art lose relevance very quickly, but it is almost impossible to tell which ones will remain in people's collective memory. The authors she mentioned were mostly unfamiliar to me, let alone the actors or performers of the time.

She does write directly about feminism in a few places, one in particular stuck with me where she talks about the misconceptions about her novel The Second Sex. I think this quote sheds light on one of the main misunderstandings in feminism: what equality of men and women means. "... Have I ever written that women were the same as men? Have I ever claimed that I, personally, was not a woman? On the contrary, my main purpose has been to isolate and identify my own particular brand of femininity. (...) I did not deny my femininity any more than I took it for granted: I simply ignored it. I had the same freedoms and responsibilities as men did."
The book is a long read, but I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the intellectual society during some of the most turbulent years of 20th century.
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Sep 24, 2011 Samantha rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Have you ever read a book and the first sentence you read you can't stop because it has struck forcefully at how you define yourself? This is that book for me. De Beauvoir wrote her autobiography in four parts, indulgent? Not particularly. Although De Beauvoir obviously writes from her perspective, she's often focusing on the world around her, her developments as a writer in a community of writers and how the war that surrounds her impacts her philosophy. This book focuses on De Beauvoir's life ...more

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Mar 15, 2014 Vilja rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ei yhtä hyvä kuin muistelmien ensimmäinen osa; ajoittain väsyttävän yksityiskohtaista oman ajan pikku-uutisten ja kulttuuritapahtumien kuvailua, joka ei oikein enää aukea. Kuvaa kuitenkin ajattomasti kirjailijan henkistä kehitystä, harvinaislaatuista suhdetta Sartreen ja hidasta havahtumista(/kieltäytymistä havahtumasta) toisen maailmansodan uhkaamaan todellisuuteen.

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Dec 26, 2014 Cliodhna Ni Ghadhra rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the highlights of this year was this little tome, and a huge thank you is owed to the person who bequeathed it to me. This volume begins with de Beauvoir as a young twenty year old, let loose in Paris for the first time, with a man on her mind and all of the freedom of the twenties to enjoy. The book ends with the liberation of Paris after the Second World War, de Beauvoir somewhat haggard and scorched, but no less enchanted with her city. The city itself makes the book; the tremendous de ...more

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Aug 24, 2015 Hella rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-best , europe , france , 5-stars , simone-de-beauvoir , autobiography

http://bookshelf54.blogspot.it/2014/07/simone-de-beauvoir-leta-forte.html

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Apr 09, 2012 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommends it for: fans of Beauvoir, writers, women

Shelves: memoir , books-from-1960

CONTINUING MY EXPLORATION OF BEAUVOIR

Beauvoir's second volume of autobiography was first published in France in 1960. She begins with the opening months of her relationship with Jean Paul Sartre. The sense of freedom she enjoys as a graduated student, out of the family home, making her own living and having a lover at last, is palpable.

She describes the details of the life she and Sartre created: their vows to tell each other everything, their decision to grant each other complete freedom (inclu CONTINUING MY EXPLORATION OF BEAUVOIR

Beauvoir's second volume of autobiography was first published in France in 1960. She begins with the opening months of her relationship with Jean Paul Sartre. The sense of freedom she enjoys as a graduated student, out of the family home, making her own living and having a lover at last, is palpable.

She describes the details of the life she and Sartre created: their vows to tell each other everything, their decision to grant each other complete freedom (including the freedom to have other lovers), and the setting of life-long goals to be writers who are engaged with the world and making a difference. All of this is as intoxicating as only life can be when you are in your early twenties and meet THE person with whom you are going to share it all.

Bouts of jealousy and insecurity follow swiftly when Sartre DOES indulge in other lovers. Due to the locations of their respective teaching jobs on the far outskirts of Paris, they are forced to be apart much of the time. Beauvoir's newly awakened sexuality takes her by surprise with its intensity.

But hardest of all for Simone are her years of learning to be a writer. She describes in detail the travails of writing and destroying two novels before she completed and sold her first, She Came to Stay.

Just as she finally found a way to sublimate her physical energies by hiking endless miles through mountains and plains as a voracious traveler with Sartre, with other lovers both male and female, and on her own, the war began to impact all of France. She covers the German invasion and occupation followed by the years of deprivation, danger and the Resistance.

During the war she completed her second novel, The Blood of Others, about a Resistance fighter and his struggles to leave behind his bourgeois background. Other than Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise and Arthur Koestler's Scum of the Earth, I had not read much about what WWII was like in France. Because Beauvoir was not Jewish, she escaped that danger, but she makes clear the horror and degradation of having to live under German occupation and of watching politicians and countrymen collaborating with the enemy.

The volume closes with the liberation of Paris bringing a burst of returned freedom and new hope. I enjoyed every page. ...more

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Sep 13, 2014 Phyl rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have now read this book at least three times over the years and each time I find something else in it to delight me. It tells the story of the philosopher Jean Paul Satre's partner, Simone de Beauvoir who can sometimes be overshadowed in other books by the great man himself. Simone de Beauvoir had an amazing life . She was a feminist and social theorist and was as interested in existentialism as Satre. It beautifully evokes Paris and it was this book that originally made me want to visit Paris ...more

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Phyl I have now read this book at least three times over the years and each time I find something else in it to delight me. It tells the story of the philo ...more
Sep 13, 2014 03:12AM

Phyl Thoroughly recommend this book
Sep 13, 2014 03:15AM

Dec 30, 2014 Béatrice added it · review of another edition

J'avais gardé un souvenir très plat de son style et j'ai eu une bonne surprise, sans parler de la franchise (réelle ?) de ses propos.

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Dec 16, 2010 Aubrey rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Simone De Beauvoir is an interesting character, and autobiographies intrigue me because I usually end up liking the author LESS after reading their own portrayal of themselves. Not in this case though. The time she covers in this book goes from her early twenties to her mid thirties, and I felt I was able to identify with her in a lot of her concerns. Her accounts of famous artists in her circle of friends was fascinating, and of course, the backdrop of Paris during World War Two lent a very int ...more

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Jul 03, 2010 Cherie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: feminism , non-fiction

The second in Beauvoir’s autobiography series; this has been said to be her best, and I can see why. Beauvoir comes into adulthood, works on clarifying her relationship with Sartre (how fascinating I find their relationship – it seems so impossible but they still manage to make it a success), her writing grows, her teaching career blossoms (and stops), and WWII is a dominating frightful factor. Highly engaging.

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Apr 18, 2008 Daniel Roy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a bit sad to read, especially after having read her other autobiographical accounts of her younger years, since in this book she seemed to be preparing herself mentally for leaving this world, and many people around her were already dying. But her wisdom-filled reflections and comments in this book are very interesting.

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Jul 24, 2015 Dounia Jalti rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In love with Simone ...more

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Apr 29, 2013 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2013

And Simone leaves us with some cheery thoughts on death: "My greatest wish was to die with the one I loved; yet though our bodies might lie side by side, such contact would remain illusory. Between nothing and nothing there can be no bond."

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May 30, 2014 Erik marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Winning first sentence drew me in:

Ce qui me grisa quand je rentrais à Paris, en septembre 1929, ce fut d’abord ma liberté.

That which thrilled me on my return to Paris in Sept 1929 was first of all my liberty.

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Jun 29, 2007 Koo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this book when I was in my early twenties. It is wonderful and amazing. Simone de Beauvoir's genius fell under the shadow of Jean Paul Sartre's. She should have been as or more famous as he was. She was brilliant.

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Sep 15, 2012 Pippa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: feminism , biography

Overall well worth reading. It evokes vivid pictures of Paris in the 1930s and early '40s. Occasionally tedious - in long descriptions of people I didn't know (I read this when I was very young, but found it inspiring.)

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Jun 03, 2007 Jesse rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

it's too long. full of WWII era slacker-anarchist-intellectual philosophy that's still fresh and provocative sixty years later. also we see the intellectual development of beauvoir and sartre.

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Dec 16, 2014 Ginger Jane rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own-it

So. I've been reading this for over a year now. An awful lot heavier going than the first volume of autobiography. And also - that Satre! (shakes head).

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Feb 08, 2009 dete rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

it's worthed beacuse of the direct point of vue by a future philosopher for the events from the 1920's and her friendship with Jean-Paul Sartre

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Aug 21, 2011 Angela rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this book when I was young. I think I would have enjoyed it more as a mature person.

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Sep 16, 2009 ZeYnAb rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

" به خود نوید دادن نجات از ناحیه ی کسی غیر از خود ، مطمئن ترین وسیله دویدن به سوی نابودی است "

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Aug 07, 2015 Manja Mexi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Detailed, narrative, factual, transportative, inspirational, and yet never-ending.

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Jan 11, 2009 Svenja rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: francais

Part of Beauvoirs autobiography. Astonishingly detailed, it's as if you were there.

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Jan 05, 2010 Michael added it · review of another edition

I'm simultaneously reading Artie Lange's autobiography. Quite the compare and contrast.

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Monica Bergdahl marked it as to-read
Oct 04, 2015

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About Simone de Beauvoir

"Simone de Beauvoir was a French author and philosopher. She wrote novels, monographs on philosophy, politics, and social issues, essays, biographies, and an autobiography. She is now 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 femin ...more

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“To abstain from politics is in itself a political attitude.” — 50 likes

“To be oneself, simply oneself, is so amazing and utterly unique an experience that it's hard to convince oneself so singular a thing happens to everybody.” — 42 likes

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