Contingent Loves: Simone De Beauvoir and Sexuality ed. by Melanie C. Hawthorne (review)

Book Reviews] 47 and beyond. When read in its entirety, this dynamic collection makes clear how little we can know ofthe "real" Marie-Antoinette. Each author, whether s/he is writing from the perspective of history, art history, or literary studies, pushes us to a deeper understanding of the queen as a "symbolic site." Goodman's anthology is not only a rich and lucid contribution to critical perspectives on Marie-Antoinette, but also to creative scholarship in contemporary cultural history. Vanessa H. ArnaudCalifornia State University, Sacramento Melanie C. Hawthorne, Ed. Contingent Loves: Simone de Beauvoir and Sexuality. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000. Pp 208. ISBN: 0-8139-1916-9. (Cloth) ISBN: 0-8139-1974-6. (Paper) $49.50. This small, thematic volume of interesting essays in English aims to fulfill Beauvoir's wish: to give a frank account of her own sexuality. An obvious flaw of the collection becomes an important point of interest: several essays are grounded in text, but others are founded in supposition and speculation. Not every reader will agree with the "truths" derived by the authors. We learn as much or more about their sexual assumptions as we do about Beauvoir's. Hawthorne's introduction states that this book "draws heavily on feminist studies" and "incorporates the skepticism of postmodern philosophy . . . with the insights of queer studies and activism in the age of AIDS" (5). Happily, most ofthe pieces are not so heavily based on theory, but rather give a clear, straightforward look at their subject. The essays that seem the most limited are precisely those that impose a grid on their topic. Luise Von Flotow's otherwise intriguing "Translation Effects " suffers from its single focus on the "male bias" she detects in English translations of Beauvoir's writings. Von Flotow sees only that male translators skewed the sexual images toward male, and away from female, sexuality . Thus she criticizes Patrick O'Brian's rendering of"son bordel de chambre" as the (un-English) "her brothel of a room" (without saying why "brothel" is male-oriented, while "bordel" is not). Asa Moberg's "Sensuality and Brutality " is also narrowed by its premise that, in The Second Sex, Beauvoir describes only "bad sex," stemming from her presumed negative sexual experience with Sartre. Liz Constable's essay seeks to re-establish Beauvoir's relevancy to readers who rejected her in favor of Judith Butler's "poststructuralist" feminist theory. The reader who lacks a theoretical vocabulary is disadvantaged, but Constable's search for common ground among theoreticians is welcome. "Variations on Triangular Relationships" by Serge Julienne-Caffié is one of the broadest and most fruitful studies. He examines the emergence and later abandonment ofthe triangle (Olga-Sartre-Beauvoir and Bianca-SartreBeauvoir ). The triangle is not a fixed structure, but a day-to-day improvisation that gives way to Beauvoir's wartime discovery of"otherness." JulienneCaffi é also studies Beauvoir's affairs with women (1934 to 1945). Her sexual life was altered in 1947, he claims, when she met Nelson Algren. Julienne- 1 48Women in French Studies Caffié reminds us that, according to Hazel Barnes, Beauvoir did not consider herselfa lesbian. "This conclusion is supported by the intensity and the length of her affair with Algren; her admission to Lamblin that she preferred men; and the fact that she never lived with a woman for a long period oftime . . ." (51). And here we confront the astonishing omission: the essay does not even broach what might be the most salient study of this collection, if it existed. None of the essays describes the 25-year relationship between Beauvoir and Sylvie Le Bon (de Beauvoir). Julienne-Caffié appears to deny it altogether. Hawthorne's own article, "Leçon de philo/Lesson in Love" covers the most ground and proceeds best from Beauvoir's texts. This fascinating study of teaching and seduction examines the long tradition of women writing in the gynaeceum. Again, Sylvie Le Bon goes entirely missing. Drawing on material first available only to her, Barbara Klaw in "Simone de Beauvoir andNelsonAlgren" focuses exclusively onthat relationship, showing how the Beauvoir and Algren described by Beauvoir are themselves fictions. Accepting them and their couple as constructs, the reader must create an unlikely...