"the Useless Mouths" and Other Literary Writings

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86) was a French existentialist philosopher who employed a literary-philosophical method in her works, including Ethics of Ambiguity (1947) and The Second Sex (1949). Margaret A. Simons is Distinguished Research Professor Emerita at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and the author of Beauvoir and The Second Sex: Feminism, Race, and the Origins of Existentialism.Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir, adopted daughter and literary executor of Simone de Beauvoir, is the editor of Lettres À Sartre and many other works by Beauvoir. Marybeth Timmermann is a contributing translator and editor of Beauvoir's Philosophical Writings.

• Foreword to the Beauvoir Series   ix   Sylvie Le Bon de BeauvoirAcknowledgments   xiIntroduction   1   Margaret A. Simons1. The Useless Mouths (A Play)   9   Introduction by Liz Stanley and Catherine Naji2. Short Articles on Literature   89   Introduction by Elizabeth Fallaize3. Existentialist Theater  125   Introduction by Dennis A. Gilbert4. A Story I Used to Tell Myself   151   Introduction by Ursula Tidd5. Preface to La Batarde by Violette Leduc   165   Introduction by Alison S. Fell6. What Can Literature Do?   189   Introduction by Laura Hengehold7. Misunderstanding in Moscow   211   Introduction by Terry Keefe8. My Experience as a Writer   275   Introduction by Elizabeth Fallaize9 Short Prefaces to Literary Works   303   Introduction by Eleanore Holveck10. Notes for a Novel   327   Introduction by Meryl AltmanContributors   379Index   385

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2013."An impressive team of experts introduces the book's 10 pieces and thoroughly annotates them. . . . This book nicely puts the philosopher's work into an expanded context for nonspecialists."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)"This engaging volume ... is the result of painstaking research and meticulous translation by a team of international scholars. . . . Essential."--Choice "English-speaking readers can now hear the subleties of a Beauvoir clearly engaged in the pursuit of defining the purpose and value of literature in her time."--H-France Review "This collection of previously untranslated pieces by Simone de Beauvoir makes available for the first time in English a variety of literary writings that are also of philosophical interest. As with previous volumes in the Beauvoir Series, "The Useless Mouths" and Other Literary Writings breaks new ground, and it will become indispensible to Beauvoir scholars."--Claudia Card, author of Confronting Evils: Terrorism, Torture, Genocide "This collection of Beauvoir's literary works not only presents us with further evidence of the importance of Beauvoir's existentialist literary style but also gives new insight into her thinking about aesthetics, existentialism, intersubjectivity, aging, and her relationship with Sartre. In addition, here we see some of her most incisive engagements with her critics and critics of existentialism more generally."--Kelly Oliver, author of Animal Lessons: How They Teach Us to Be Human