Newly translated and unabridged in English for the first time, Simone de Beauvoir's masterwork is a powerful analysis of the Western notion of "woman," and a groundbreaking exploration of inequality and otherness. This long-awaited new edition reinstates significant portions of the original French text that were cut in the first English translation. Vital and groundbreaking, Beauvoir's pioneering and impressive text remains as pertinent today as it was sixty years ago, and will continue to provoke and inspire generations of men and women to come. Overview: Newly translated and unabridged in English for the first time, Simone de Beauvoir's masterwork is a powerful analysis of the Western notion of "woman," and a groundbreaking exploration of inequality and otherness. This long-awaited new edition reinstates significant portions of the original French text that were cut in the first English translation. Vital and groundbreaking, Beauvoir's pioneering and impressive text remains as pertinent today as it was sixty years ago, and will continue to provoke and inspire generations of men and women to come.

Originally published: Paris : Editions Gallimard, 1949.

Introduction /Translators' note -- Volume 1: Introduction -- Part 1: Part 2: Part 3: Volume 2: Introduction -- Part 1: Part 2: Part 3: Part 4: Conclusion. Introduction to the Vintage Edition -- Book One: Facts and Myths -- Part One: Destiny -- 1. The Data of Biology -- 2. The Psychoanalytic Point of View -- 3. The Point of View of Historical Materialism -- Part Two: History -- 4. The Nomads -- 5. Early Tillers of the Soil -- 6. Patriarchal Times and Classical Antiquity -- 7. Through the Middle Ages to 18th Century France -- 8. Since the French Revolution: the Job and the Vote -- Part Three: Myths -- 9. Dreams, Fears, Idols -- 10. The Myth of Woman in Five Authors -- a. Montherlant or the Bread of Disgust -- b. D.H. Lawrence or Phallic Pride -- c. Claudel and the Handmaid of the Lord -- d. Breton or Poetry -- e. Stendhal or the Romantic of Reality -- f. Summary -- 11. Myth and Reality -- Book Two: Woman's Life Today -- Part Four: The Formative Years -- 12. Childhood -- 13. The Young Girl -- 14. Sexual Initiation -- 15. The Lesbian -- Part Five: Situation -- 16. The Married Woman -- 17. The Mother -- 18. Social Life -- 19. Prostitutes and Hetairas -- 20. From Maturity to Old Age -- 21. Woman's Situation and Character -- Part Six: Justifications -- 22. The Narcissist -- 23. The Woman in Love -- 24. The Mystic Part Seven: Toward Liberation -- 25. The Independent Woman -- Conclusion.