Chapter 13 will to live (3)

Beauvoir outlived her mythic companion by just six years, who died in 1986. In 1990, her adopted daughter Sylvie published the complete collection of Beauvoir's personal letters, so innocent and vile.Why did Sylvie decide to publish?In memory of Simone's love?for money?For revenge?Nothing is known about Sylvie's relationship with Beauvoir, which lasted the last twenty-three years of the authoress' life, and which Simone sometimes even compares to her relationship with Sartre.To be sure, the publication of Beauvoir's private papers has tarnished the myth of this woman.Beauvoir spread so freely about other people's private lives that he soon became the subject of lewd gossip—perhaps in poetic justice.But anyway, her image is more complex and more human now — because in our private lives, we all have shame and inappropriateness to cover up.In the end, between so much glory and so much misfortune, what remains is the magnificent feat of her freedom and responsibility for her own destiny.For better or worse, Beauvoir has made herself.

bibliography ○C Frances, F Gontier: "Simone de Beauvoir", Prasa & Hanes Press. ○ Simone de Beauvoir: "Memoirs of a Respectable Girl", "The Fullness of Life", "The Power of Things", "The End of the Interpretation", "The Ritual of Farewell", "The War Diary", "To Sartre's Letters (I, II), Aidasa Press; 21st Century Press. ○ Novels and short stories published by Aidasa Press. ○Complete works published by Aguilar Press. ○Jean-Paul Sartre: "Letter to "Beaver", "War Notes", Aidasa Press.

○M Crossland: Simone de Beauvoir, Women and Her Works, Heinemann (London).