Simone de Beauvoir's A Transatlantic Love Affair: Letters to Nelson Algren
chart
not only the passionate, tumultuous affair between the two writers, but
also the social, political, and cultural changes from 1947 to 1964.
When I picked up this book in a used bookstore, I thought that it would
make a great coffee table book--one that could start engaging
conversations and be read from time to time by guests or myself. This,
however, was not the case. Once I started reading, I found myself caught
up in the developing love relationship between de Beauvoir and Algren
and intrigued by the recollections of day-to-day activities among the
intellectual sphere in France and also abroad. As an English major, I
have read de Beauvoir's more "academic" texts, but my time spent with A Transatlantic Love Affair
provided me with an intimate portrait of a major literary figure that
was refreshing. The nature of these letters, primarily love, provides a
portrait of de Beauvoir that is not talked about in classrooms. The
letters are prolific in their information, but much of what de Beauvoir
writes can be categorized into three groups: her feelings for Algren;
literature, theatre, and art; and the political, intellectual, and
cultural atmosphere of France and abroad. Any
romantic relationship, especially a "transatlantic" one, evolves over
time, and de Beauvoir's letters intimately capture all the little
moments of her relationship with Algren. The love relationship between
the two was almost immediate; after just two months de Beauvoir ended
her letter writing, "I am your wife forever." Despite their initial
infatuations with each other, de Beauvoir comments quite frequently in
the first letters about not truly knowing Algren. This shifts a few
months later, when de Beauvoir writes, "I feel now, instead we are
getting nearer and nearer through these letters." The reason that this
collection of letters is so difficult to put down is two-fold: first the
letters transcend and act as a mirror to our own personal love stories
or the ones we hope to have, and second the letters reveal a poignant
narrative of a relationship between two artists.
Indeed,
the intense desire to love and be loved that de Beauvoir relates in her
letters to Algren makes the letters more of a love story than one would
expect from reading only one partner's letters. Each letter contains
quotable passages that would illustrate this, but the following
highlights the intricate prose and also the crystallization of their
bond: "Something happened when we said good bye in New York, and it was
the beginning of love. But something happened too when I found you again
in the Wabansia home and I stood quivering in your arms, and it was the
fulfillment of love." The relationship between de Beauvoir and Algren
shifted over time and eventually the letters she writes to him begin to
change in subtle, but distinct ways. Because the letters of Algren are
not included in this book, it is hard not to feel more sympathetically
towards de Beauvoir, especially towards the end of the collection.
Algren is definitively the one who ends their relationship in 1964, but
their correspondence does not end bitterly. The last letter de Beauvoir
writes to Algren is hopeful, she writes she is travelling to the States
in 6 months and that she will "find" him. Despite the tinge of promise
in the last letter, the ending of their relationship and subsequently
the ending of their exchange of letters are heartbreaking. De Beauvoir
never did "find" Algren, and the last letter in the collection is the
end of their correspondence.
The title of the
collection of letters speaks to the love that is found in each of the
letters, but, in truth, there is a lot more than love embedded in de
Beauvoir's writings to Algren. De Beauvoir writes about the present
turmoil and also about the war years, women's issues, and the
differences between American and French culture. Simone de Beauvoir was
part of the "intellectuals" in France, and in her letters she
meticulously records the political atmosphere and the cultural changes
occurring in France and Europe. When de Beauvoir and Algren start their
correspondence, the political situation in France is tumultuous. The
letters provide a portrait of the struggles between the Communist Party
and the Popular Republican Movement: "two blocks in France now, just as
outside: USA or USSR, De Gaulle or Thorez, a kind of civil war." The
letters span a period of twenty years, and the letters act as a memoir
of sorts of the life of an activist. At one point she writes about a
radio engagement where she and Jean Paul Sartre spoke against de Gaulle:
"I don't think we'll go on a long time; they will fire us, but it was
pleasant to be able to say in so loud a voice what we thought."
Perhaps
the most rewarding part of reading de Beauvoir's letters is getting a
behind the scenes view of the literati. De Beauvoir had an extremely
close relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre, among other French authors,
musicians, actresses and actors, and philosophers. De Beauvoir writes
about Sartre's work and the reception of his plays by the public and by
Sartre himself. Through the letters, we get an inside look at Sartre and
his work and also de Beauvoir's. One of her projects during her
relationship with Algren that she writes about is her famous work The
Second Sex. I had read The Second Sex in a course, but reading about her
process of writing it in the letters made that text even more
intriguing. In the beginning of 1948, a year before it was published,
she writes, "I came back to my essay about women. I told you, I have
never felt bad for being a woman, and sometimes I even enjoy it, as you
know. Yet when I see other women around me, I think they have very
peculiar problems and it would be interesting to look at what is
peculiar in them." In everything that de Beauvoir writes about in her
letters about The Second Sex
, one gains a perspective that lends to a more thorough reading of that seminal text.
, one gains a perspective that lends to a more thorough reading of that seminal text. I
could continue writing about all the topics that can be found in the
many letters Simone de Beauvoir wrote to Nelson Algren, but part of the
joy of reading the letters is discovering the little secrets about de
Beauvoir and her life. These letters are a snapshot of a side of de
Beauvoir that is not found in biographies or her academic writing. Her
love letters to Algren are a captivating portrayal of a love story--the
full spectrum, from a passionate, romantic love to a compassionate,
platonic affection--and her activities and intellectual thoughts. While
that information seems to be inconsequential, compared to her love for
Algren, to de Beauvoir, every sentence in her letters is alluring and
fascinating. Reading these letters, one truly does feel as if one is a
confidante of de Beauvoir and privy to her dearest and most private
thoughts.
Review by Sheri Gitelson
