|
The Second Sex (Vintage classics) |  | Author: Simone de Beauvoir
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: £10.99
Buy New: £4.47
as of 29/7/2010 13:14 BST details
You Save: £6.52 (59%)
New (25) Used (7) from £3.99
Seller: spectrum_books
Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 19481
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 786
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7 x 4.2 x 1.7
ISBN: 009974421X
Dewey Decimal Number: 305
EAN: 9780099744214
ASIN: 009974421X
Publication Date: August 7, 1997
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | New | | • | Mint Condition | | • | Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon | | • | Guaranteed packaging | | • | No quibbles returns |
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A work of anthropology and sociology, of biology and psychoanalysis, which stands - almost five decades after its first appearance - as the first landmark in the modern feminist upsurge that has transformed perceptions of the social relationship of man and womankind in our time.
Amazon.co.uk Review
In The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir posed questions many men, and women, had yet to ponder when the book was released in 1953. "One wonders if women still exist, if they will always exist, whether or not it is desirable that they should..." she says in this comprehensive treatise on women. She weaves together history, philosophy, economics, biology and a host of other disciplines to show women's place in the world and to postulate on the power of sexuality. This is a powerful piece of writing in a time before "feminism" was even a phrase, much less a movement. --Christine Buttery
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
 Dense, Irrelevant, Outdated, Non-Scientific February 11, 2010
Asp
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
Some poeple would tell you that this book deserves five starts for its historical relevance alone. To them Ill say: 1 I am reading it NOW, not in the past. and 2 other books in a similar position (such as Freud) are still a pleasure to read. this book is dense, strays madly from its reasoning. forbidding in prose, the points are spread thinly throughout the book and the conclusions sometimes self-contradictory.
if youd like a much better breakdown of womens lot in life, check ridleys red queen instead
sex as a profession September 18, 2009
Carlos Vazquez Quintana (Linares- Spain)
0 out of 10 found this review helpful
This woman wrote many years ago this book. Firstly it was novelty. But her irregular life, contradictory with almost all principles she explains has deceived many readers.
Must of all, De Beauvoir makes a poisonous mixture and confuses to be born a female person by nature, with becoming a professional female (housewife, prostitute or so on) owing the force or life's circunstances, yes, not very favourable to equality of sexes by the decades of 1950-60, but today this book is delayed and boring.
 A hugely impressive book April 9, 2008
Sally Wilton (Bournemouth UK)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Simone de Beauvoir was scandalised and ridiculed particularly by the church when this first came out in 1949 which must have been a disappointment for her. Perhaps a radical book at the time but very relevant to the present and this is worth reading by all women and any man who agrees that women should have a better time whilst on this planet.
The book covers many aspects of being a woman, begining when humans first roamed the earth as nomads and the tyranny of life as a woman giving birth constantly as unlike many animals humans are always fertile. Infant death and infantacide were a means of survival then and the reason why the human population was realatively small for tens of thousands of years. Then tilling the earth when the male began to domineer and own all land, passing it on to their male heirs, leaving woman to be a virtual slave to fathers and husbands, the start of male domination!
I learnt some really interesting things from reading this for example: I didn't know that reproduction was properly underrstood until the mid 19th Century, all sorts of bizare beliefs were practised prior to this revelation, people even believed that sperm contained tiny little people!!! Also discussed is how man and woman are prisoners of instinctive behaviour and really cannot help themselves to a great extent, brilliant for understanding relationships, ie why men walk away after sex in many cases but instinctively a for a woman it is the start of relationship due to the feelings of wanting to nurture a pregnancy. It also explains why in some ways a woman does not always progress due to involuntarily sabotaging their own plans ie preferring part time work or not going for the promotion due to home making instincts. Prostitution, love, ageing are all discussed in depth in this volume. A fascinating read, it sucks you in and you cannot put it down. Only one negative comment and that is that I found it very slightly depressing as there is little hope for women to be truly independant before they get old, ugly and die according to Ms De Beauvoir.
One of the great books of the 20th century March 26, 2008
William Podmore (London United Kingdom)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
There is more good sense in this wonderful book than in most of the rest of all the writing by and about women. Marvellous.
encyclopaedic March 28, 2006
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
The Second Sex is a book of mammoth proportions, displaying the intellectual prowess of de Beauviour in full swing, putting women right up there in the literary firmament. It is almost impossible to overestimate this book, and it is a shame that it never recieved its due praise whence published. However, this unfairness only concretises Beauvior's arguments upon Patriarchal attitudes. TSS is encyclopaedic in scope, and dazzling in its wealth of knowledge. Opening this book is like opening Pandora's box - there is no end to what you may find inside.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON EU S.à.r.l. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. Business Data International Ltd, 131 Putney Bridge Road, London SW15 2PA. Tel: +44 (0)208 875 0200 | |
