Books

Volume 1: 1 blank leaf + half title with a list of her works on the verso + TP + [7] = Dedication page + half title + [11]-395 + [397] = half title + [399] = Index + [400] = Printing Information; Volume 2: 1 blank leaf + half title with a list of her works on the verso + TP + [5] = Quote page + [7] = Introduction + half title + [13]-577 + [579] = half title + [581] = Index + [583] = Printing Information, Octavo. First Edition.The Dawn of Modern FeminismOne of 2,000 numbered copies (from an edition of 2,150) on alfama Marais paper - Volume 1 is numbered 782 and Volume 2 is numbered 1702. Beauvoir's landmark work on feminism appeared at a crucial turning point immediately following the Second World War, wherein she offered a profound and scathing analysis of patriarchal society and what it means to be a woman in Western society. One of her most important pieces of writing, The Second Sex was translated into over a dozen languages and played a pivotal role in the transition from the 'old feminism' of the woman suffrage movements to the 'new feminism' (the so-called "second wave") that has dominated gender politics ever since - setting the agenda for women's rights throughout the nineteen fifties and well beyond. "�if nevertheless we admit, provisionally, that women do exist, then we must face the question "what is a woman?"To state the question is, to me, to suggest, at once, a preliminary answer. The fact that I ask it is in itself significant. A man would never set out to write a book on the peculiar situation of the human male. But if I wish to define myself, I must first of all say: 'I am a woman'; on this truth must be based all further discussion. A man never begins by presenting himself as an individual of a certain sex; it goes without saying that he is a man� In actuality the relation of the two sexes is not quite like that of two electrical poles, for man represents both the positive and the neutral, as is indicated by the common use of man to designate human beings in general; whereas woman represents only the negative, defined by limiting criteria, without reciprocity. In the midst of an abstract discussion it is vexing to hear a man say: 'You think thus and so because you are a woman'; but I know that my only defense is to reply: 'I think thus and so because it is true,' thereby removing my subjective self from the argument. It would be out of the question to reply: 'And you think the contrary because you are a man', for it is understood that the fact of being a man is no peculiarity. A man is in the right in being a man; it is the woman who is in the wrong. It amounts to this: just as for the ancients there was an absolute vertical with reference to which the oblique was defined, so there is an absolute human type, the masculine. Woman has ovaries, a uterus: these peculiarities imprison her in her subjectivity, circumscribe her within the limits of her own nature. It is often said that she thinks with her glands. Man superbly ignores the fact that his anatomy also includes glands, such as the testicles, and that they secrete hormones. He thinks of his body as a direct and normal connection with the world, which he believes he apprehends objectively, whereas he regards the body of woman as a hindrance, a prison, weighed down by everything peculiar to it� Thus humanity is male and man defines woman not in herself but as relative to him; she is not regarded as an autonomous being." the publisher's original cloth with the colorful, modern design supplied by Mario Prassinos. Some mild wear to corners and edges of front and back boards with wear to top and bottom of both spines. Otherwise, a well-preserved and lovely copy of this extremely important and influential work in the history of ideas from the mid-20th century. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.