Books like Christine De Pizan by Charity Cannon Willard

In "Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée," Simone de Beauvoir recounts her childhood in a bourgeois French family, her adolescent rebellion, and the formative years of her relationship with Jean‑Paul Sartre amid the political upheavals of the 1920s.

An obsessive and revealing self-portrait of a remarkable woman humiliated by the circumstances of her birth and by her physical appearance. La Batarde relates Violette Leduc's long search for her own identity through a series of agonizing and passionate love affairs with both men and women. When first published, La Batarde was compared to the work of Jean Genet for the frank depiction of sexual escapades and immoral behavior. A confession that contains portraits of several famous French authors, this book is more than just a scintillating memoir - like that of Henry Miller or Charles Bukowski, Leduc's brilliant writing style and attention to language transform this autobiography into a work of art.

A 50‑plus‑year partnership between Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, chronicling how evolving philosophy, personal challenges and political controversies shaped their iconic literary and activist collaboration.

Christine de Pizan (1364-1429?), France's first woman of letters, is widely known for her Book of the City of Ladies (Persea, 1982), a classic work of revisionist history that seeks to show that women are the moral and intellectual equals of men. In recent years, Christine has taken her place within the canon of Western literature alongside Boccaccio and Dante, and yet very little of this writer's considerable oeuvre has been translated into English. The Writings of Christine de Pizan remedies this situation. In this volume, major scholars and acclaimed translators unite in a single endeavor: to make the full range of this important writer's work and thought widely known. Edited by Charity Cannon Willard, foremost authority on Christine de Pizan, The Writings presents lengthy excerpts from nearly all of Christine's works in accurate and gracious translations. Introductory essays by Dr. Willard mark the major divisions of the book and set the writings in an historical, biographical, and literary context. References are annotated, and the sources of the translations are cited. The volume also includes biographical notes on the translators, extensive bibliography, and an index. Many years in the making, The Writings of Christine de Pizan has been long-awaited by both the general reader and the specialist . Among the writings are passages from Christine's autobiography; lyric and allegorical poetry; excerpts from her official biography of King Charles V the Wise; her writings on women, warfare, politics, love, and the human condition; writings from her part in the famous Quarrel of the Rose; and Christine's triumphant poem on Joan of Arc, the only contemporaneous account in existence. The translators are Barbara K. Altmann, Diane Bornstein, Regina deCormier, Dwight Durling, Thelma S. Fenster, Eric Hicks, Nadia Margolis, June Hall McCash, Glenda McLeod, Christine Reno, Earl Jeffrey Richards, Kittye Delle Robbins-Herring, Sandra Sider, James J. Wilhelm, Charity Cannon Willard, and Sumner Willard.

Judith Thurman’s biography of French writer Colette chronicles her rise from provincial obscurity to international fame, exploring her complex personal life, literary innovations, and controversial wartime activities.

"In a pioneering study of the three best-known French women writers of the twentieth century, Bethany Ladimer examines the ways in which the aging process shaped their creativity and their lives. Simone de Beauvoir, Colette, and Marguerite Duras all lived long lives and were prolific writers until the end. Ladimer's developmental approach to their creativity takes into account literary analysis and also discusses their work and lives from the standpoint of history and the social sciences, a conjunction that considers age, gender, and a culture that depends on the ideas of sexual difference for its national identity. She incorporates the work of Betty Friedan, Carolyn Heilbrun, and Margaret Gulette, among others, into her study."--BOOK JACKET.