A great introduction to Simone de Beauvoir's writing. It consists of short extracts from several her books and essays, each discussed and enlarged on in brief chapters explaining her ideas clearly in the context of her work and life generally and the ideas of other philosophers. The samples here cover a wide breadth of topics, including anxiety, sex, vengeance, ambiguity and old age. It's a very useful initial signposting for choosing where next to explore her political, philosophical and literary output further. ( )