WRITER

Simone de Beauvoir

1908 - 1986

Photo of Simone de Beauvoir

Icon of person Simone de Beauvoir

Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (UK: , US: ; French: [simɔn də bovwaʁ] ; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, nor was she considered one at the time of her death, she had a significant influence on both feminist existentialism and feminist theory. Beauvoir wrote novels, essays, biographies, autobiographies, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and social issues. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Simone de Beauvoir has received more than 6,054,951 page views. Her biography is available in 126 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 122 in 2019). Simone de Beauvoir is the 49th most popular writer (down from 47th in 2019), the 41st most popular biography from France (down from 39th in 2019) and the 14th most popular French Writer.

Simone de Beauvoir is most famous for her book, The Second Sex, which is a feminist work that argues that women are treated as the 'second sex' in society.

Memorability Metrics

  • 6.1M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 80.37

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 126

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 11.48

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.39

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Le sang des autres
Fiction, World War, 1939-1945, NOVELAS FRANCESAS
1945
L' invitée
Triangles (Interpersonal relations), Man-woman relationships, Fiction
1943
The mandarins
French fiction, French language materials, Intellectuals
1954
Pour une morale de l'ambiguïté
Ethics, Existentialism
1947
Les belles images
French fiction
1966
Deuxième sexe
Conditions sociales, Femmes, Féminisme
1953
Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée
Intellectual life, Childhood and youth, Biography
A superb autobiography by one of the great literary figures of the twentieth century, Simone de Beauvoir's Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter offers an intimate picture of growing up in a bourgeois French family, rebelling as an adolescent against the conventional expectations of her class, and striking out on her own with an intellectual and existential ambition exceedingly rare in a young woman in the 1920s. She vividly evokes her friendships, love interests, mentors, and the early days of the most important relationship of her life, with fellow student Jean-Paul Sartre, against the backdrop of a turbulent political time.
1900
Une mort tres douce
Biographies, Mort, Romans
1964
Les Mandarins
Continental european fiction (fictional works by one author), France, fiction, Fiction, general
1954
Les Mandarins
Continental european fiction (fictional works by one author), France, fiction, Fiction, general
1954
Prime of Life, the (Twentieth Century Classics)
Biography, Feminists, French Authors
1960
Le sang des autres
Fiction, World War, 1939-1945, NOVELAS FRANCESAS
1945
Le sang des autres
Fiction, World War, 1939-1945, NOVELAS FRANCESAS
1945
The Second Sex
Women, Sex, Feminism
**The Second Sex** (French: *Le Deuxième Sexe*) is a 1949 book by the French existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, in which the author discusses the treatment of women throughout history. Beauvoir researched and wrote the book in about 14 months between 1946 and 1949. She published the work in two volumes: *Facts and Myths* (*Les faits et les mythes*), and *Lived Experience* (*L’expérience vécue*). Some chapters first appeared in the journal *Les Temps modernes*. One of Beauvoir’s best-known books, *The Second Sex* is often regarded as a major work of feminist philosophy, and as the starting inspiration point of second-wave feminism.
1949
Prime of Life, the (Twentieth Century Classics)
Biography, Feminists, French Authors
1960
The Second Sex
Women, Sex, Feminism
**The Second Sex** (French: *Le Deuxième Sexe*) is a 1949 book by the French existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, in which the author discusses the treatment of women throughout history. Beauvoir researched and wrote the book in about 14 months between 1946 and 1949. She published the work in two volumes: *Facts and Myths* (*Les faits et les mythes*), and *Lived Experience* (*L’expérience vécue*). Some chapters first appeared in the journal *Les Temps modernes*. One of Beauvoir’s best-known books, *The Second Sex* is often regarded as a major work of feminist philosophy, and as the starting inspiration point of second-wave feminism.
1949
The Second Sex
Women, Sex, Feminism
**The Second Sex** (French: *Le Deuxième Sexe*) is a 1949 book by the French existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, in which the author discusses the treatment of women throughout history. Beauvoir researched and wrote the book in about 14 months between 1946 and 1949. She published the work in two volumes: *Facts and Myths* (*Les faits et les mythes*), and *Lived Experience* (*L’expérience vécue*). Some chapters first appeared in the journal *Les Temps modernes*. One of Beauvoir’s best-known books, *The Second Sex* is often regarded as a major work of feminist philosophy, and as the starting inspiration point of second-wave feminism.
1949
The Second Sex
Women, Sex, Feminism
**The Second Sex** (French: *Le Deuxième Sexe*) is a 1949 book by the French existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, in which the author discusses the treatment of women throughout history. Beauvoir researched and wrote the book in about 14 months between 1946 and 1949. She published the work in two volumes: *Facts and Myths* (*Les faits et les mythes*), and *Lived Experience* (*L’expérience vécue*). Some chapters first appeared in the journal *Les Temps modernes*. One of Beauvoir’s best-known books, *The Second Sex* is often regarded as a major work of feminist philosophy, and as the starting inspiration point of second-wave feminism.
1949
Une mort tres douce
Biographies, Mort, Romans
1964
Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée
Intellectual life, Childhood and youth, Biography
A superb autobiography by one of the great literary figures of the twentieth century, Simone de Beauvoir's Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter offers an intimate picture of growing up in a bourgeois French family, rebelling as an adolescent against the conventional expectations of her class, and striking out on her own with an intellectual and existential ambition exceedingly rare in a young woman in the 1920s. She vividly evokes her friendships, love interests, mentors, and the early days of the most important relationship of her life, with fellow student Jean-Paul Sartre, against the backdrop of a turbulent political time.
1900
Les Mandarins
Continental european fiction (fictional works by one author), France, fiction, Fiction, general
1954
Prime of Life, the (Twentieth Century Classics)
Biography, Feminists, French Authors
1960
Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée
Intellectual life, Childhood and youth, Biography
A superb autobiography by one of the great literary figures of the twentieth century, Simone de Beauvoir's Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter offers an intimate picture of growing up in a bourgeois French family, rebelling as an adolescent against the conventional expectations of her class, and striking out on her own with an intellectual and existential ambition exceedingly rare in a young woman in the 1920s. She vividly evokes her friendships, love interests, mentors, and the early days of the most important relationship of her life, with fellow student Jean-Paul Sartre, against the backdrop of a turbulent political time.
1900
Prime of Life, the (Twentieth Century Classics)
Biography, Feminists, French Authors
1960
Le sang des autres
Fiction, World War, 1939-1945, NOVELAS FRANCESAS
1945
Le sang des autres
Fiction, World War, 1939-1945, NOVELAS FRANCESAS
1945
Les Mandarins
Continental european fiction (fictional works by one author), France, fiction, Fiction, general
1954
Une mort tres douce
Biographies, Mort, Romans
1964
Une mort tres douce
Biographies, Mort, Romans
1964
Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée
Intellectual life, Childhood and youth, Biography
A superb autobiography by one of the great literary figures of the twentieth century, Simone de Beauvoir's Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter offers an intimate picture of growing up in a bourgeois French family, rebelling as an adolescent against the conventional expectations of her class, and striking out on her own with an intellectual and existential ambition exceedingly rare in a young woman in the 1920s. She vividly evokes her friendships, love interests, mentors, and the early days of the most important relationship of her life, with fellow student Jean-Paul Sartre, against the backdrop of a turbulent political time.
1900
Les Mandarins
Continental european fiction (fictional works by one author), France, fiction, Fiction, general
1954
Le sang des autres
Fiction, World War, 1939-1945, NOVELAS FRANCESAS
1945
Prime of Life, the (Twentieth Century Classics)
Biography, Feminists, French Authors
1960
Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée
Intellectual life, Childhood and youth, Biography
A superb autobiography by one of the great literary figures of the twentieth century, Simone de Beauvoir's Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter offers an intimate picture of growing up in a bourgeois French family, rebelling as an adolescent against the conventional expectations of her class, and striking out on her own with an intellectual and existential ambition exceedingly rare in a young woman in the 1920s. She vividly evokes her friendships, love interests, mentors, and the early days of the most important relationship of her life, with fellow student Jean-Paul Sartre, against the backdrop of a turbulent political time.
1900
Une mort tres douce
Biographies, Mort, Romans
1964
The Second Sex
Women, Sex, Feminism
**The Second Sex** (French: *Le Deuxième Sexe*) is a 1949 book by the French existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, in which the author discusses the treatment of women throughout history. Beauvoir researched and wrote the book in about 14 months between 1946 and 1949. She published the work in two volumes: *Facts and Myths* (*Les faits et les mythes*), and *Lived Experience* (*L’expérience vécue*). Some chapters first appeared in the journal *Les Temps modernes*. One of Beauvoir’s best-known books, *The Second Sex* is often regarded as a major work of feminist philosophy, and as the starting inspiration point of second-wave feminism.
1949

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Simone de Beauvoir ranks 49 out of 7,302. Before her are Stendhal, Euripides, Gustave Flaubert, Aristophanes, Jane Austen, and Aeschylus. After her are Octave Mirbeau, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sappho, Thomas Mann, Mark Twain, and Gabriel García Márquez.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1908, Simone de Beauvoir ranks 1. After her are Salvador Allende, Bette Davis, James Stewart, Enver Hoxha, Oskar Schindler, Abraham Maslow, Edward Teller, Lyndon B. Johnson, Herbert von Karajan, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Otto Skorzeny. Among people deceased in 1986, Simone de Beauvoir ranks 1. After her are Wallis Simpson, Jorge Luis Borges, Vyacheslav Molotov, Andrei Tarkovsky, Olof Palme, Mircea Eliade, Tenzing Norgay, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Joseph Beuys, Cliff Burton, and Jean Genet.

Others Born in 1908

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Others Deceased in 1986

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In France

Among people born in France, Simone de Beauvoir ranks 41 out of 6,770. Before her are Charles Baudelaire (1821), Pierre Curie (1859), Émile Zola (1840), Stendhal (1783), Gustave Flaubert (1821), and Henry IV of France (1553). After her are Octave Mirbeau (1848), Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor (1122), Eugène Delacroix (1798), Louis XIII of France (1601), Philip IV of France (1268), and Édouard Manet (1832).

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Among WRITERS In France

Among writers born in France, Simone de Beauvoir ranks 14. Before her are Denis Diderot (1713), Alexandre Dumas (1802), Charles Baudelaire (1821), Émile Zola (1840), Stendhal (1783), and Gustave Flaubert (1821). After her are Octave Mirbeau (1848), Marcel Proust (1871), Romain Rolland (1866), Charles Perrault (1628), Arthur Rimbaud (1854), and François Rabelais (1494).

French born Writers

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