thebitterbabe

http://therumpus.net/2012/12/the-best-of-not-2012/

In the end, however, perhaps the most compelling part of this long correspondence is de Beauvoir’s flawed humanity.  Already mid-life when her affair with Algren began, by the time the letters conclude, she is still a vibrant woman in possession of one of the greatest minds of her age, and yet she repeatedly dismisses her own sexuality as done-with, grandmotherly and passé.  Her insecurities about her womanhood play a far greater role than one having heard only the hype of this libertine trio might expect in limiting her future with Algren.