This is a terrific book. We have very little that is historical on Beauvoir, which is ironic and a shame, given Beauvoir's determination to be so fully 'engaged' in her time. Sanos's biography is not only historical, it is good, up-to-date historical, and it raises and lays out issues that are rarely considered the purview of Beauvoir scholars, including Vichy, the Holocaust and its aftermath, and the Algerian war. - Judith G. Coffin, Univeristy of Texas at Austin This is a well-written and compelling short biography of Simone de Beauvoir. The scholarship is solid and up to date, providing the historical context to help readers understand Beauvoir's life, ideas, and writing. Yet it is not overly weighted toward background context, in that it equally presents fascinating arguments about Beauvoir's contributions to philosophical thought, literature, and also to political activism both during her life and in the longer term. I can see students at both the undergraduate and graduate level responding very positively to this text as the narrative is easy to read, and Sanos provides just the right amount of history mixed with information on Beauvoir's life and work to make it a lively and informative read. - Darcie Fontaine, University of South Florida Sanos does an excellent job of weaving together Beauvoir's life with her writings, an especially challenging task given the prodigious number and the wide variety of Beauvoir's publications, from philosophical works to essays, short stories, novels, and a series of memoirs written over the course of her long and event-filled life. The biography provides clear and concise explanations of Beauvoir's philosophy, and in particular of the genesis and central ideas contained in her most internationally influential work, The Second Sex. Sanos also situates Beauvoir's life and writings into the historical context of the twentieth century, whose many dramatic and traumatic world-historical events Beauvoir experienced, wrote about and incorporated into her philosophical works. Doing all this in a very short biography represents a remarkable achievement. - Sarah Fishman, University of Houston This is an excellent introductory and overview text written in accessible prose. It not only situates Beauvoir and the vicissitudes of her thought, writings, and other activities within her historical context and intellectual milieu, but it also uses one of the 20th-century's foremost intellectuals to illuminate the history of France and Europe. - Marc Matera, University of California, Santa Cruz