She also writes that her mother becomes afraid of an “unidentifiable change” in her oldest daughter. She feels shame and observes (whether truthfully or not) that her father finds her ugly and her younger sister Hélène no longer looks up to her. Her skin is scarred and damaged by acne, and she becomes clumsy. Once a conventionally attractive child, she no longer finds herself pretty.

When Simone reaches adolescence, she begins to feel as if she is a disappointment. She reads the forbidden works in secrecy, absorbing every word even if she does not fully understand it. Her parents attempt to forbid her from reading certain books they deem improper, but this only incites their daughter further. Once Simone learns to read, she does not stop. Simone’s mother enforces conservative morals in her daughter such as duty, austerity, and self-sacrifice. When Simone starts school at Cours Desir, she contrasts herself with her new friend Elizabeth, called “Zaza.” Zaza is also bright and charismatic she easily captivates the school-aged Simone. Simone’s mother, a devout Catholic insists that the children be sent to the finest Catholic schools anyway. During World War I, the de Beauvoirs’ lose most of their fortune but try to cling to their comfortable class status. But this intelligence means she is not always willing to obey the rules, and she often gets in trouble for this. She is also able to recognize, even as a young child, that she is exceptionally intelligent. Her family showers her with attention and affection she is spoiled and untroubled. Her father was a legal secretary and her mother was the daughter of a wealthy banker. Young Simone was born in Paris to a life of privilege. De Beauvoir traces the story of her early years in great detail. De Beauvoir had a longtime relationship with philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and died in 1986.

Her most famous work is The Second Sex, an analysis of female oppression that became the foundation of the second-wave feminist movement.

De Beauvoir was a notable French writer, philosopher, and feminist. Simone de Beauvoir’s Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (1958) is an autobiographical account of De Beauvoir’s early years, leading up to her coming-of-age when she leaves her family to attend classes at the Ecole Normale in Paris.

Memoirs of a dutiful daughter