The Second Sex

First published in Paris in 1949, a groundbreaking, risqué book that became a runaway success. Since then, this has been translated into forty languages and has become a landmark in the history of feminism.

Simone De Beauvoir

"A masterpiece" Vogue "Discovering The Second Sex was like an explosion in my skull, shattering illusions bred in a conventional fifties childhood...Re-reading the book now I realise how much of it is still entirely relevant, and that (despite advances) women are as much in need of liberation as ever" -- Bel Mooney "De Beauvoir was not just a genius as a theorist. She dared to live it. Challenging conventional marriage and sexual practice, she used her own experience to explore the emotional costs of jealousy, attachment, monogamy, bohemianism,sexuality, of love" -- Susie Orbach "A fine piece of work, a lucid translation" Independent "A fresh, much expanded, more intelligible book which repays re-reading by adherents of the old version, and cries out for attention from young women who have not been exposed to this most powerful of feminist thinkers" Irish Times