Le Deuxieme Sexe (in 2 vols.)
- [Paris]: Gallimard, 1949
[Paris]: Gallimard, 1949. First edition. Near Fine. First edition, limited issue, each volume one of 2,000 copies. Original black paper-covered boards, spines lettered in gilt, pictorial decorations on boards and spines in grey, blue, and gilt after designs by Mario Prassinos, endpapers decorated with Pegasus motif and the initial of La Nouvelle Revue française. Title pages printed in red and black. A bit of shelfwear. Some foxing to edges of closed text block of volume one. Small contemporary ink ownership inscription to preliminary blank of volume two. A bright, Near Fine set.
One of the preeminent French existentialist philosophers, working alongside other intellectual greats such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir made her greatest contributions in the fields of ethics, feminism, and politics. She is perhaps best known for the present work, The Second Sex, which argues that women have been historically relegated to a second class as men's "Other," and that this has led to systemic oppression. Drawing on Hegel and Sartre, de Beauvoir argues that women need to define themselves as subjects as opposed to accepting the objectification that is pushed upon them. "Her revolutionary magnum opus, it was published in two volumes and immediately found both an eager audience and harsh critics. The Second Sex was so controversial that the Vatican put it on the Index of Prohibited Books...Striking for its breadth of research and the profundity of its central insights, it remains to this day one of the foundational texts in philosophy, feminism, and women's studies" (Encyclopedia of Philosophy). A cornerstone work that led to the next wave of feminist thought, de Beauvoir made the key contribution of undercutting assumptions of gender essentialism and setting forward new ideas that positioned gender as socially constructed. Near Fine.
One of the preeminent French existentialist philosophers, working alongside other intellectual greats such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir made her greatest contributions in the fields of ethics, feminism, and politics. She is perhaps best known for the present work, The Second Sex, which argues that women have been historically relegated to a second class as men's "Other," and that this has led to systemic oppression. Drawing on Hegel and Sartre, de Beauvoir argues that women need to define themselves as subjects as opposed to accepting the objectification that is pushed upon them. "Her revolutionary magnum opus, it was published in two volumes and immediately found both an eager audience and harsh critics. The Second Sex was so controversial that the Vatican put it on the Index of Prohibited Books...Striking for its breadth of research and the profundity of its central insights, it remains to this day one of the foundational texts in philosophy, feminism, and women's studies" (Encyclopedia of Philosophy). A cornerstone work that led to the next wave of feminist thought, de Beauvoir made the key contribution of undercutting assumptions of gender essentialism and setting forward new ideas that positioned gender as socially constructed. Near Fine.