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Written as an act of revenge against the 17 year-old who came between her and Jean-Paul Sartre, She Came to Stay is Simone de Beauvoir's first novel - a lacerating study of a young, naive couple in love and the usurping woman who comes between them. 'It is impossible to talk about faithfulness and unfaithfulness where we are oncerned. You and I are simply one. Neither of us can be described without the other.' It was unthinkable that Pierre and Francoise should ever tire of each other. And yet, both talented and restless, they constantly feel the need for new sensations, new people. Because of this they bring the young, beautiful and irresponsible Xavière into their life who, determined to take Pierre for herself, drives a wedge between them, with unforeseeable, disastrous consequences... Published in 1943, 'She Came to Stay' is Simone de Beauvoir's first novel. Written as an act of revenge against the woman who nearly destroyed her now legendary, unorthodox relationship with the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, it fictionalises the events of 1935, when Sartre became infatuated with seventeen-year old Olga Bost, a pupil and devotee of de Beauvoir's. Passionately eloquent, coolly and devastatingly ironic, 'She Came to Stay' is one of the most extraordinary and powerful pieces of fictional autobiography of the twentieth century, in which de Beauvoir's 'tears for her characters freeze as they drop.' unorthodox relationship with the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, it fictionalises the events of 1935, when Sartre became infatuated with seventeen-year old Olga Bost, a pupil and devotee of de Beauvoir's. Passionately eloquent, coolly and devastatingly ironic, 'She Came to Stay' is one of the most extraordinary and powerful pieces of fictional autobiography of the twentieth century, in which de Beauvoir's 'tears for her characters freeze as they drop.'… (more)
User reviews
The book is like a boat on tumultuous water, the story tipping between the character's view points and over the main narrators anger,
A compelling read, my personal favourite of De Beauvoir's back catalogue.
Oh, and it's also a very interesting story. Francoise and Pierre have a deep and open relationship. They befriend a young woman
So glad I read this.
But when they were all three or just
I think whenever a pair who is strong decides to gang up on someone else, and the tricks are all secrets, that is the highest degree of degeneracy in the book.
Francoise and Pierre seem to take umbrage at every little thing that Xaviere says or does, so I wonder what their big problem is and why they can not live and let live. They need an object to attack because maybe they would be too bored if they could only analyse themselves.
I tried my best to understand the book in French, but maybe I will have to re-read it in English to get some of the nuances that I might have missed.
French or English does not matter, I think by the time I got to the last 5 pages or so, something extra super nasty was happening.
I think someone should have warned Xaviere to go to a community drop in centre instead of however she met up with the two losers that latched on to her.