In June 2020, when the author of The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir, published for the first time in France, publisher Taku said: "She powerfully describes why young women cannot gain freedom of life because their goal is to become someone else's wife and mother." Recently, Chinese readers will also see this story that has been sealed for more than 60 years, and this book about Beauvoir's childhood friendship, "Inseparable", was recently introduced and published by Motie Books.
"Inseparable"
[French] by Simone de Beauvoir
Translated by Cao Dongxue
Motie Books and Big Fish Readings | Zhejiang Education Publishing House
In 1954, five years after the publication of The Second Sex, Beauvoir began writing the book as a tribute to the most memorable friendship of her life, based on Beauvoir's best friend Zaza. The Beauvoir points out that in Beauvoir's life, there were two times when she lost her deeply, once because of the loss of faith in God, and once because of the death of her best friend Zaza.
Beauvoir and Zaza
On November 25, 1929, zaza died suddenly at the age of 22. This unexpected tragedy has always haunted Beauvoir, and in order to resist nothingness and oblivion, she has resorted to the magic of literature, and has tried to recreate Zaza in words four times in the creation of different subjects, including some unpublished youth novels, the story collection Quand prime le spirituel, and a deleted passage in Les Mandarins. In 1954, She won the Goncourt Prize, and in the same year she once again tried to write Zaza, a novella. After writing it, she shared the novel with her partner Jean-Paul Sartre. Kosat said the story "has no need to publish and readers will not be interested" in this story. In his memoirs, Beauvoir agrees with Sartre's assessment. In this way, the work was shelved and not named.
Beauvoir and Sartre
Beauvoir's adopted daughter, Sylvie Lebon de Beauvoir, first read the manuscript of the novel in 1986, considered it a mature work, and decided to publish it under the title "The Inseparables."
Beauvoir with adopted daughter Sylvie Lebon de Beauvoir
In the novel, Beauvoir incarnates as Sylvie and Zaza becomes Andrei. At the age of 9, Sylvie first met a girl her age, Andrea. She had never seen such a cool girl. Unlike the obedient "good student" Sylvie, Andrea is intelligent but rebellious and indifferent to everything. She had experienced terrible burns and carried the marks of fire on her body. In order to refuse to participate in social activities, she did not hesitate to cut herself with an axe. They become inseparable, starting from disobeying the school order together, the conformist Sylvie step by step to freedom, the uninhibited Andrey, but under the constraints of family and etiquette, step by step struggle, gradually become a trapped beast.
Beauvoir published many novels during her lifetime, but she is best known for her political and philosophical work, and Inseparable will provide a new perspective on Beauvoir's growth and development as a writer.