Original author 丨alison flood
Compile the | Xu Yuedong
According to the Guardian, Sylvie Le Bond De Beauvoir, daughter of the famous feminist writer and thinker Simon De Beauvoir
(sylvie le bon-de beauvoir)
In the archives of Simon De Beauvoir, a novel written by Simon de Beauvoir was found, "Inseparable".
(the inseparable)
, and wrote a preface for it, intending to be published in the second half of this year. Because the novel was so intimate, it was not published during Simon de Beauvoir's lifetime.
"Inseparable"
Created in 1954, it tells the story of Simon de Beauvoir and her friend Zaza in the first person
（zaza elisabeth lacoin）
A story of passionate and tragic friendship. Zaza died of encephalitis at the age of 21. Due to family pressure, Zaza gave up her studies, and she had an ill-fated relationship with the philosopher Maurice Merlot-Ponty. In the novel, Zaza is transformed into andrée, while Beauvoir is transformed into sylvie, and Maurice Merlot-Ponty is transformed into jean. After andrée joined Sylvie's class, Sylvie was quickly drawn to her charm, and the two remained inseparable during high school until Andrée's tragic death.
Vintage Publishing will publish an English version of the novel in the UK next year. Its editor, Charlotte Knight, said the novel was a "moving, accurate capture of adolescent female friendships and the formation of a female worldview." The novel describes the friendship of two young girls. They were confronting the moral demands of Parisian society at the beginning of the 20th century for women — purity, piety and obedience. This society is demanding that they give up what they love. In the work, De Beauvoir describes why young women are unable to be free because their goal is to become wives and mothers.
Simon de Beauvoir
Charlotte Knight also said, "The passion and character of Beauvoir's life began to form in her friendship with Zaza. Later, Beauvoir finally broke free and broke free, but her good friend died young. "This work has important value for the study of the formation of Beauvoir's thought.
In her memoirs, De Beauvoir wrote that five years after the publication of the famous Second Sex, she wrote it for several months, and then showed it to her partner Sartre, who "pinched his nose" and thought that the novel "had no need to publish, nor would the reader be interested." Eventually, the character of Zaza eventually appeared in Beauvoir's nonfiction masterpiece, Lady Duanfang.
De Beauvoir's daughter told The New York Times that she had read the novel in 1986 and intended to publish it. However, since there were always other higher priority works to be published, the publication of this novel has been shelved. So, only recently, she began to sort out the works of fiction in her mother's archives. Beauvoir's daughter believed that "Inseparable" was a mature work, and in 1954 Beauvoir had already honed her writing skills. And after 1954, De Beauvoir never changed the novel. Beauvoir destroyed some of her dislikes, but the novel survived.
A French edition of The Invisible will be published in October this year. So far, the copyright to the book has been sold to publishers in 17 countries.
The copyright of the article belongs to The Guardian.
Reference link: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/apr/29/simone-de-beauvoir-too-intimate-novel-to-be-published-after-75-year-les-inseparables
Original author 丨alison flood, compiled | Xu Yuedong
Editor 丨 Dong Muzi, proofreader 丨 He Yan