The
relationship between Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, the
most famous of the French existentialists' was a love affair of the
heart, body, and soul; one of the most infamous relationships of the
20th century.
These
letters reveal a caring, loving Simone and her intellectual concerns
between 1930 and 1963. What makes these letters interesting are the
many characters one meets in her novels are mentioned by their real
names rather than their novelist pseudonyms.
De
Beauvoir is known more as one of the first driving forces for the
ideals of Feminism. However, she was also a prize-winning novelist,
political activist, philosopher, and diarist. She also loved Sartre
beyond measure.
The
relationship between them, as written in the Introduction by de
Beauvoir's daughter was a "...notorious `morganatic union.'
allowing contingent loves." They had an `open relationship,' one
where other lovers were permitted yet, they remained a lifetime
companions and lovers are until Sartre died in 1980.
What
the letters also reveal, aside from her contemporaries actual names,
was the couple's intellectual and relationship jealousies. As to
there `self-created myth' of open relationship bliss, nothing could
be farther from the truth...these jealousies existed.
As
a professional writer, de Beauvoir, wrote every day. In one of her
letters, she mentions that one day during the week, she didn't have
time to put pen to paper; she writes, "A day without writing
tastes of ashes." She was an incessant scribbler, as her large
body of work reveal.
Interestingly,
as I've written somewhere before, reading letters, especially love
letters make me feel like a violator or voyeur. That said, these
letters are an important contribution to philosophical history,
therefore, from a historical standpoint, that feeling of voyeurism
is irrelevant.
If
you are interested in the philosophy of existentialism and
beautifully written love letters (a vanishing art form) this text is
highly recommended.
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