LETTERS: Letters to her sister.
Simone de Beauvoir’s Letters to her Sister
Beauvoir, Simone de. Letters to Hélène de Beauvoir. 1954-1957.
A remarkable collection of 14 letters in French from Beauvoir to her younger sister Hélène, written during the period when Beauvoir and her companion Jean-Paul Sartre were frequently traveling across Europe. The tone of the correspondence indicates the degree of intimacy of the sisters’ relationship—Beauvoir repeatedly expresses her affection for her sister, whom she addresses as “dear little Dolly,” and concern for the health of Hélène’s husband, Lionel de Roulet. Many of the letters end with tender sentiments, such as this: “I embrace you with all my heart, and send a thousand thoughts of friendship to Lionel” (November 27, 1955).
In the correspondence, Beauvoir vividly recounts the various trips she took with Sartre. A lengthy letter dated August 28, 1955 includes a description of a recent sojourn to Spain, during which she and Sartre “saw 56 bulls killed and covered 8000 km of road.” Beauvoir also includes this anecdote:
Finally in Madrid we met some charming Spaniards in a bar, simple little insurance agents who set out to show us the city, without ever wanting us to pay a cent, and who uncovered for us nooks and crannies I had never imagined. This time I liked Madrid immensely, even more than Barcelona. The two of you must return to Spain one time, and I promise you I will give you great tips.
Beauvoir was less enthusiastic about her stay in Greece, which she describes in a letter dated September 4, 1956. Though “the landscapes and ruins are marvelous…the poverty is heart-wrenching; one eats terribly poorly…the roads too are awful.” Despite these shortcomings, she did apparently learn how to swim on the trip.
In almost every letter, Beauvoir describes her current writing endeavors. In one of the earliest letters, dated 1954, Beauvoir reflects on the critical response to her novel about the post-World War II schism in French intellectual thought, The Mandarins:
I have been pleasantly shocked to see myself congratulated from the right as much as the left. I don’t know what critiques you have seen? From the left there were Lettres Françaises and Liberation, both excellent. From the right, an excellent Henriot in Le Monde…Jacques Lauren, obviously, and the fascist newspaper Dimanche Matin, dragged me through the mud.
The Mandarins, considered one of Beauvoir’s best works, was awarded the coveted Prix Goncourt for literature later that year. In a letter dated March 25, 1957, Beauvoir again mentions The Mandarins, though at this time, she was exploring the idea of adapting it into a play. She apologizes for not being able to visit Hélène in Milan as planned, because “a man is coming from America to discuss the possibility of making a play out of Mandarins.” In a later letter, she expresses satisfaction with the progress of the project: “Things seem to be working out with the theater play. My adaptor is a Hungarian Jew, naturalized English, so not an average American. He really wants to respect the meaning of ‘The Mandarins.’”
Several of the letters trace the development of Beauvoir’s book on China, The Long March. Beauvoir got the idea to write about China after she and Sartre vacationed there in the fall of 1955. She writes:
I have in fact begun writing a book on China, and it must be done quickly, without that I would lose all opportunity; it would otherwise be overtaken with current events—and moreover, if I want to understand a little of what yesterday’s China was, which is indispensible to understanding what it is today, I have an enormous task ahead.
(December 15, 1955)
In subsequent letters, Beauvoir mentions the book at other stages, referring to it as “China” before the title of The Long March was chosen. Her goal in writing the book was “to tell how a trip to China really is” and she suspected that her straightforward approach might hinder the book’s sales. Howev
Print Inquire
