Recommendations
Books Like She Came to Stay
Best books to read after She Came to Stay by Simone de Beauvoir
Readers who love She Came to Stay by Simone de Beauvoir are drawn to its combination of existentialist philosophy in fictional form, the devastating investigation of intersubjectivity through the Sartre-Beauvoir-Olga triangle, and the portrait of the Parisian intellectual world of the late 1930s — they want novels that deal with the Other in close relationships, the philosophical fiction of the French existentialist tradition, and the intersection of love and political life.
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The Mandarins
by Simone de Beauvoir
Beauvoir's companion Prix Goncourt novel — the Parisian intellectual left after the Liberation. The companion investigation of the same existentialist subject in the political sphere: where She Came to Stay is about the philosophical problem of the Other in personal relationships, The Mandarins is about the same problem in the political world
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The Second Sex
by Simone de Beauvoir
Beauvoir's companion philosophical masterwork. The companion investigation of the same subject from the philosophical angle: She Came to Stay is the lived experience that The Second Sex analyzes; Françoise is a woman whose situation is shaped by the constraints that The Second Sex identifies and names
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Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter
by Simone de Beauvoir
Beauvoir's companion autobiography — her childhood and early development. The companion as autobiographical context: the memoir explains how Beauvoir became capable of writing She Came to Stay, and the Zaza friendship in the memoir is the companion to the Françoise-Xavière relationship in the novel
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No Exit
by Jean-Paul Sartre
Sartre's companion play about three people locked together in hell. The companion investigation of the same problem: the relationship between consciousness and the Other — 'hell is other people' is the compressed version of what She Came to Stay dramatizes at length
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Being and Nothingness
by Jean-Paul Sartre
Sartre's companion philosophical masterwork published the same year. The companion philosophical text: Beauvoir's novel is the fictional investigation of the same philosophical problems — the being-for-others, the look, the intersubjectivity that Sartre investigates theoretically
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The Prime of Life
by Simone de Beauvoir
Beauvoir's companion autobiography — her life from meeting Sartre to the Liberation. The companion as autobiographical context: The Prime of Life tells the story of the years during which She Came to Stay was written, and shows how Beauvoir transforms life into fiction
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The Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton
Wharton's companion investigation of a woman's consciousness within social constraints. The companion as prototype: both novels are about women who are defined by the social system they are in and who are conscious of that definition without being able to escape it
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Nausea
by Jean-Paul Sartre
Sartre's companion novel — Roquentin's discovery of contingency. The companion fictional investigation of the same philosophical territory from a male perspective: where Roquentin confronts contingency alone in his diary, Françoise confronts the Other in her relationship with Xavière
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