The Prime of Life – Simone de Beauvoir | Vintage Penguin Book

A vintage Penguin paperback edition of Simone de Beauvoir's The Prime of Life, the second volume of her celebrated autobiography, following Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter.

This memoir covers de Beauvoir's unconventional partnership with Jean-Paul Sartre — the outstanding intellectual of his generation — and spans the rebellious thirties and the war-torn forties. It is a vivid, searching account of a life lived in pursuit of personal freedom and identity, and records the lives of two key figures in the intellectual and political history of contemporary France.

The cover features a detail from Hera by Francis Picabia (collection G. Kahn, Paris / Snark International), a haunting, layered illustration of interwoven faces rendered in ink and warm tones — entirely characteristic of the bold graphic design of the Penguin paperback era.