Lovers Are for Characters
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A Dangerous Liaison: A Revelatory New Biography of Simone DeBeauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre
by Carole Seymour-Jones
Overlook Press.  574 pages, $35.

CAROLE SEYMOUR-JONES struggles to find a balance in this dual biography of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre between the intellectuals who risked jail for their support of Algerian independence and the couple who made compromises during the Occupation to keep their prestigious positions, then, after the war, exaggerated the extent of their roles in the Resistance. While they contributed immensely to feminism, literature, and philosophy, at the same time they could be stubborn, manipulative, and ethically dubious.