Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter
Simone de Beauvoir
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter
The first volume of Beauvoir's memoirs, from a bourgeois Catholic childhood in Paris to intellectual independence at the Sorbonne.
Read our takeWhen Things of the Spirit Come First
Simone de Beauvoir
When Things of the Spirit Come First
Five linked early stories about young women constrained by Catholic education, bourgeois respectability, and idealized love.
- 1979
- Melancholy
- Atmospheric
- intimate
- political
- voice-driven
About Simone de Beauvoir
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeWritten before Beauvoir's first published novel but rejected by publishers at the time, these five stories examine how inherited ideals can separate young women from their bodies, desires, and judgment. Beauvoir published the revised French collection in 1979.
The story, in more detail
Each section centers on a different woman in an interconnected Paris circle. Teachers, students, friends, and lovers use the language of sacrifice, purity, culture, and spiritual seriousness to organize relationships that often depend on silence or unequal authority.
Because the stories were written early and published late, the book works as an origin document rather than a final statement. Themes developed more fully in She Came to Stay, Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, and The Second Sex appear here in a less controlled but revealing form.
The stories
Five linked narratives follow Marcelle, Chantal, Lisa, Marguerite, and Anne through school, teaching, friendship, and romantic expectation.
The women do not face one shared plot. Their stories overlap through the institutions and people who teach them to value an ideal image of themselves over direct experience.
The collection shows Beauvoir learning how to turn philosophical and autobiographical material into fiction.
Why we recommend it
Why it matters
It shows the early fictional workshop from which Beauvoir's later subjects developed.
Where it fits
Save it until after Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter and She Came to Stay, whose more mature treatment gives the early stories useful context.
What this book explores
Timeline
1979
Gallimard publishes Quand prime le spirituel in Paris.
English editions
Translations publish the work under the title When Things of the Spirit Come First; dates and wording vary by edition.
Book editions
Paperback
- Paperback
- Gallimard
- 1979
Reader reviews
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She Came to Stay
Simone de Beauvoir
She Came to Stay
A Paris novel about a couple whose promise of freedom breaks down when a younger woman enters their life.
Read our takeWhen Things of the Spirit Come First: frequently asked questions
What is When Things of the Spirit Come First by Simone de Beauvoir about?
Written before Beauvoir's first published novel but rejected by publishers at the time, these five stories examine how inherited ideals can separate young women from their bodies, desires, and judgment. Beauvoir published the revised French collection in 1979.
When was When Things of the Spirit Come First published?
Gallimard first published Quand prime le spirituel in French in 1979.
Should I read When Things of the Spirit Come First first?
Usually not. Start with The Second Sex for Beauvoir's major argument, Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter for her life, or The Mandarins for a novel, then return to When Things of the Spirit Come First.