Le Deuxieme Sexe.
The True First Edition
De Beauvoir, Simone. Le Deuxième Sexe. Paris: Gallimard, (1949).
2 vols., 8vos.; pages fresh and bright; publisher’s decorative binding, designed by Mario Prassinos: black, gray, blue, and gilt geometric African-influenced design (Vol. I); black, green, rust and gilt geometric African-influenced design (Vol. II); a beautiful set, in sterling condition. In a specially made quarter-morocco slipcase.
The true first edition of this landmark text which posited femininity as a socially-constructed rather than a “natural” category. She begins: “On ne nait-pas femme: on le devient.”—“One is not born, but rather becomes a woman.” Gallimard, correctly anticipating this book’s landmark status, published an elegant limited edition: this two-volume set was one of 2000 copies on alfama Marais paper, specially bound. A stunning copy of a work whose importance and wisdom only increases with time. True firsts of The Second Sex are increasingly hard to come by, especially in superior condition. Loosely inserted is a signed photograph of de Beauvoir, circa 1978.
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