The Image of Her by Simone De Beauvoir

The Image of Her by Simone De Beauvoir

Laurence is a woman who appears to live an ideal life.

Weekends in the country, weekdays in Paris – her life features all the trappings of 1960s French bourgeoisie. She has money, a handsome husband, two daughters and a lover. She also has a successful career as an advertising copywriter, though her mind unbidden writes copy while she’s at home, and dreams of domesticity in the office.

But Laurence is a woman whose experience of life has always been overwritten by the expectation of perfection. It is only when her 10-year-old daughter, Catherine, starts to vocalise her despair about the unfairness of the world that Laurence begins to act, finally grappling with a life that prizes image over truth.

TRANSLATED BY LAUREN ELKIN

This timeless and surprisingly jocular novel has the same richness of feeling and continental sophistication as Annie Ernaux’s auto-fiction, plus a dash of the wealthy carelessness found in F Scott Fitzgerald’s best known works… It’s the best book I’ve read so far this year * The Times *

Simone de Beauvoir was born in Paris in 1908. In 1929 she became the youngest person ever to obtain the agrégation in philosophy at the Sorbonne, placing second to Jean-Paul Sartre. She taught at the lycées at Marseille and Rouen from 1931-1937, and in Paris from 1938-1943. After the war, she emerged as one of the leaders of the existentialist movement, working with Sartre on Les Temps Mordernes. The author of several books including The Mandarins (1957) which was awarded the Prix Goncourt, de Beauvoir was one of the most influential thinkers of her generation. She died in 1986. Lauren Elkin is the author of several critically-acclaimed books, including Scaffolding, Art Monsters, and Flâneuse. Her essays on art, literature, and culture have appeared in the London Review of Books, the New York Times, Granta, Harper's, Le Monde, Les Inrockuptibles, and Frieze, among others. An award-winning translator, she lives between Paris and London.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781784879907
ISBN 10	1784879908
Title	The Image of Her
Author	Simone De Beauvoir
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Vintage Publishing
Year published	2025-05-01
Number of pages	208
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.