A full draft of chapter 4 is now available to download.

It argues that Beauvoir’s 1943 novel She Came To Stay presents her distinctive form of existentialism through a critique of Sartre’s theory of freedom.

Her view is that freedom requires a sedimentation of projects and the values they embody. Without this, there cannot be the commitment required for freedom.

Sartre’s theory of freedom excludes the possibility of this sedimentation. Beauvoir dramatises this disagreement in the relationship between Françoise and Pierre.

If you would like to respond, please post your thoughts in the Comments thread below.

Draft chapters are available from the Book page.