This book was a very interesting insight between the relationship of author and reader. The dynamic is a reciprocal one in many ways and this book is an excellent exploration of this relationship.

This is an excellent collection of letters by a leading writer of the 20th Century. It captures the multi dimensional nature of her writings. I strongly recommend it, You will not regret it.

In this book, Coffin explores the letters sent to Beauvoir and her relationship with the correspondents. An intimate portrait is revealed of an intricate woman. The writing is fairly clinical, but there are lots of footnotes to keep you right.

This was an interesting exploration of the reception and significance of Simone de Beauvoir's work by examining the explanations she offered and how people responded to her in letters, from confessional fan mail to collegial messages from other great thinkers to her partner, Jean-Paul Sartre. It was an engaging way to approach the subject, although I would have wished for an appendix with some of the letters in their entirety.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for a digital ARC for the purpose of an unbiased review.

Simone de Beauvoir has long been regarded in history for her work, as well as for the desire she had for a boy that was 18 years younger than her. The author explored Simone's works and of the acceptance of her work in a much more conservative time. This was a really interesting read!

A true treasure trove of letters.A look at a time in history revealing open people sharing their thoughts .I was fascinated by Simone de Beauvoir previously and this added to my interest.#netgalley#cornell upress

This is an interesting reception history of de Beauvoir's writings but its parameters could perhaps have been tautened. While the strand that is being promoted in the title and blurb is the archive of letters from readers which dB collected and saved, the book itself ranges around far more widely.

The opening two chapters look at the specific reception of The Second Sex first in the media, and secondly in relation to Kinsey and Freud and their writings on sexuality. While interesting, these don't strictly pursue the stated remit of following 'Beauvoir's relationship with her readers from 1949 to 1972' and are an extended preamble.

It would perhaps have been useful to have had a theoretical and methodological chapter somewhere near the beginning: Coffin does discuss some of the theory on letters and the epistolary genre but it comes a good way into the book. I'd liked to have seen more discussion, too, of the impact of the one-way archive on Coffin's readings: we have the readers' letters to dB but not her replies.

Those caveats out of the way, there is much that is fascinating here: Coffin is very good at contextualising the letters in terms of contemporary politics - I was especially fascinated by her readings of political shame in the post-war years of reckoning with the Occupation and collaboration, and the section on the Algerian war, especially the torture and rape of Djamila Boupacha and the way critics, the media and readers responded to dB's cool denouncement of the French authorities. This was not what I had expected from the book - the later sections on issues such as female sexuality, desire, and abortion are where I expected this book to go, so the expansion was a welcome adjunct.

The very idea of reading reception through an archive of readers' letters is itself a welcome intervention - and the specificities discussed here foreground the way in which dB spoke for generations of women and how we have found ourselves in her books.

Sex, Love, and Letters: Writing Simone de Beauvoir
Judith G. Coffin

Though well known, The Second Sex (1949) is only part of the works of Simone de Beauvoir. A prolific writer of essays, fiction, diary entries, and volumes of memoirs. An exuberant writer of letters, she corresponded with her audience who did more than offer fan letters. They engaged in intellectual conversations with Beauvoir, and vice versa, delivering to us the closest we can get to becoming time travelers.

What we get close up are conversations on the excruciating aftershock of World War Two, personal lives, philosophers and writers of the day, political attitudes and a reciprocal sense of strong relationships between author and audience.

This book is like finding buried treasure!

What a fascinating saga. I knew Simone de Beauvoir more by reputation than anything else, but Ms Coffin quickly sorted that out, and form there you are plunged into an absolutely fascinating world of... well, the title says it all. I'm not norally one for reading other people's mail, but on this occasion, I'm glad that I did.

This was a real find, and I'm glad to have had access to an advance copy. It's a history of the twentieth century at the pen of an extraordinary woman. Loved it.

Concise, informative, well-researched; Coffin's book delves critically into Simone de Beauvoir's body of work, themes and letters, whilst presenting the way the historical period influenced SdB's writings.