Tete-a-Tete - Hardcover

Rowley, Hazel

4.14

1,761 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701175087 ISBN 13: 9780701175085

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2006

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They are one of the world's legendary couples. Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre - those passionate, free-thinking Existentialist philosopher-writers - had a committed but notoriously open union that generated no end of controversy. Through original interviews and access to new primary sources, Hazel Rowley portrays them up close: their romantic entanglements, their Parisian cafe society circle, their discussions of each other's work. Theirs is a great story - and a great story is precisely what they most wanted their lives to be.

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About the Author:

Born in London and brought up partly in Australia (where she taught at Deakin University, Melbourne) Hazel Rowley is the author of two previous books of nonfiction: Christina Stead: A Biography and Richard Wright: The Life and Times. Her awards include Rockefeller and Radcliffe Fellowships, and the National Book Award from Australia. She divides her time between New York and Paris.

Review:

"An elegant, concise, gossipy account... heartbreaking and compelling" * Financial Times * "Refreshingly unpretentious. It may be the book that Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir wished to be written about their shared life" * Sunday Times * "Rowley tells [the story] with compelling vigour... What is wonderful about Rowley's book, aside from its readability, is that she catches the intellectual excitement as well, the intimacy of thought" -- Brian Morton * Sunday Herald * "[Rowley] manages to recapture the charm and the brilliance of the relationship in its early stages, which makes her story all the more poignant and depressing" * Scotsman * "Marvellous ... A born storyteller" -- Serena Davies * Telegraph *

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