Writing the Ending: Simone de Beauvoir's Tout compte fait as testament Susan Bainbrigge TOUT COMPTE FAIT, THE FOURTH VOLUME of Simone de Beauvoir 's autobiographical œuvre, would seem to serve as final word on her autobiographical writings, as the author reviews her whole life, writing about the years covered in the earlier volumes, but this time using a broadly thematic framework rather than a chronological one.' Indeed in this volume the author affirms: "Aujourd'hui ma vie est faite, mon œuvre est faite" (157). This process of rewriting has puzzled critics, who question the place of this volume within the traditional conventions of the genre. Terry Keefe has argued that "insofar as autobiography, as Philippe Lejeune has argued, is essentially about the formation of a personality, this may go a long way towards explaining why Tout compte fait is a very unsatisfactory work of autobiography."2 Where Jean-Marie Domenach insists on its classification as "compte" in the sense of a "compte rendu,"3 Toril Moi describes it as "a lifeless ghost of an autobiography, a mere chronicle of official duties, rather than an exploration of lived experience."4 Other critics have appropriated the volume into the feminist autobiography camp, by placing emphasis on the entry of Sylvie Le Bon into the text, and by drawing attention to the feminist stance Beauvoir adopts at the end of the volume.5 Yet such attempts to classify the volume would seem to limit readings of the text. I would suggest that Tout compte fait merits further attention as far as the autobiographical act itself is concerned. How does the autobiographer solve the problem of concluding, bringing together the four volumes of her autobiography in this rewriting and reconstruction of a life? How does Beauvoir express the desire for an impossible totalization of experience? Philippe Lejeune, in his exploration of epilogues with respect to Sartre, touches on the ending of La Force des choses. Tout compte fait is not discussed here as his attention is drawn to the critical year 1963 when Sartre and Beauvoir found themselves writing endings for Les Mots and La Force des choses respectively.6 Unlike the previous volume, La Force des choses, where the portrayal of an aging, physical self culminates in the famous "flouée" conclusion, the narrator in Tout compte fait dispenses with discussion of her embodied self, choosing to focus on her "intellectual" Vol. XL, No. 1 79 L'Esprit Créateur self, often borrowing the essay mode of Le Deuxième sexe as writing style (in contrast with the exploration of her own aging body in La Force des choses, her mother's in Une mort très douce, or of Sartre's as revealed in La Cérémonie des adieux). I would suggest that Beauvoir's representation of herself in Tout compte fait, first and foremost as an intellectual in the public domain, is used to "tie up the loose ends" of the autobiographical œuvre (the disparate narratives and fragmented genres), conceptualising the life as complete in a paradoxical positioning of the narrator as voix d'outre-tombe. In this analysis of Tout compte fait as final "adieu," the ambiguous relationship of Beauvoir's text to the autobiographical canon might be usefully explored within the context of the autobiographical act as literary testament. This opens up the question of the death-drive in writing, in all its possible manifestations . Indeed, the writing of autobiography as desire to preserve the self for posterity in the face of death certainly places Beauvoir within a well-established canon. Does Beauvoir's desire to universalize her experience place her in line with male predecessors such as Montaigne, Rousseau, or Stendhal?7 In Tout compte fait, Beauvoir's mode of writing as intellectual essayist can be contrasted with the search for a place where the private self might also find a voice. Further comparisons could be drawn from within Beauvoir's "literary family," as the autobiographical practices of Jean-Paul Sartre and Violette Leduc, beyond "existentialist" classifications,8 might shed light on the various author-reader and mentoring relationships which underlie various narrative threads.9 The principal question raised here is whether this autothanatographical act might...