Simone de Beauvoir Reviews:

"No other work in English attempts an analysis of the total person and of her essays and fiction."

"A scholarly yet readable work, this is essential for college and public libraries."

J. McCallister Albion College Library
Library Journal

"Ascher successfully combines a critical biography of French writer Simone de Beauvoir with elements of a personal essay on what de Beauvoir means to her as a sort of feminist mentor-from-afar."

Booklist

"Ascher's deeply personal exploration of de Beauvoir's life and work should have strong appeal for feminists who, like the author, "are still trying to discover what we can be...."

Publishers Weekly

"Simone de Beauvoir: A Life of Freedom by Carol Ascher is a personal view of the woman who wrote "The Second Sex." Ascher discusses Beauvoir as a woman, as a thinker and as a role-model. She sees her as someone committed to freedom, in literature and in her 50-year-long alliance with Jean-Paul Sartre, yet Ascher is dismayed by her perceptions of Beauvoir's inconsistencies in that regard. A subjective and fascinating account of a woman, who may or may not be the authentic Beauvoir."

Elizabeth Wheeler Los Angeles Times, August 9, 1981

"Ascher is particularly strong in conveying the intricate, almost Laingian way in which de Beauvoir presents degrees of consciousness and of 'bad faith' as women assert or abdicate their independence."

London Times Literary Supplement

"I relearned with great clarity many things about de Beauvoir's philosophy from Carol Ascher's work. And I came away with a strong sense of the very human vulnerability and the determined strength of this brilliant woman."

Jane Lazarre

"Carol Ascher brings into fresh perspective a life of significance interwoven with a body of work that will speak to generations to come. She has made me go back and re-read de Beauvoir with new eyes."

Vivian Gornick

"An engrossing discussion of many of the important issues of our time. A stimulating work."

Alix Kates Shulman