The Useless Mouths and Other Literary Writings

Abstract

This book brings to English-language readers literary writings—several previously unknown—by the author. Culled from sources including various American university collections, the works span decades of the author’s career. Ranging from dramatic works and literary theory to radio broadcasts, they collectively reveal fresh insights into the author’s writing process, personal life, and the honing of her philosophy. Highlights of the volume include a new translation of the 1945 play The Useless Mouths, the unpublished 1965 short novel “Misunderstanding in Moscow,” the fragmentary “Notes for a Novel,” and an eagerly awaited translation of the author’s contribution to a 1965 debate among Jean-Paul Sartre and other French writers and intellectuals, “What Can Literature Do?” ALso available in English for the first time are prefaces to well-known works such as Bluebeard and Other Fairy Tales, La Bâtarde, and James Joyce in Paris: His Final Years, alongside essays and other short articles. A landmark contribution to Beauvoir studies and French literary studies, the volume includes informative and engaging introductory essays by prominent and rising scholars.