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| Tete-a-tete: The Lives and Loves of Simone De Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre | 
 enlarge | Author: Hazel Rowley
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £2.55
You Save: £6.44 (72%)
New (26) from £2.55
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 165713
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0099455544
EAN: 9780099455547
ASIN: 0099455544
Publication Date: January 4, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Real life's better than fiction! May 3, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. As the previous reviewer writes, Rowley doesn't shy away from demonstrating the ugly sides in Sartre and De Beauvoir's characters but she also shows us why they were such iconic figures of the 20th century. It reads more like a story than a biography - which is what a good biography should do!
 Sex, lies and existentialism January 29, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
This biography of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre's legendary relationship is pacey and well written and a must-read for anyone interested in Beauvoir and/or Sartre and their times. After reading a biography on de Beauvoir years ago, I'd thought that their interpretation of their relationship a bit suspect - while de Beauvoir kept going on about how they had no formal ties to one another and they were both free to take other lovers, her behaviour and his emotional demands on her didn't seem that different from a put-upon housewife. She seemed to be giving the emotional support while he chased pretty girls yet this was not reciprocated - her passionate affair with the writer Nelson Algren was almost certainly undermined by Sartre's jealous behaviour.
I was afraid this book would simply regurgitate the party line about them but luckily Rowley isn't in awe of her subjects. She certainly doesn't shy away from showing their hypocrisy - while they vowed to tell each other the truth about everything, they consistently lied to everyone else, including quite impressionable young women that they came in contact with through their teaching - and the often terrible consequences of their lies. Many a time I wanted to throw this book across the room, not because of the writing, but because of de Beauvoir and Sartre's appalling - and arrogant - behaviour. A great book about a pair of phoneys.
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