A Very Easy Death

A Very Easy Death is a short book by Simone de Beauvoir. It recounts the weeks before her mother Françoise de Beauvoir's death in 1963. After a fall and broken femur, doctors reveal terminal cancer. Beauvoir and her sister Hélène hide the diagnosis and face whether their mother should have surgery. The book also tells her mother's life, from an unhappy childhood to marriage. Beauvoir questions whether agreeing to the surgery was the best decision. It explores illness, family decisions, grief, and the relationship between mother and daughter.

Why You Should Read?

• Follow Simone de Beauvoir as she records the weeks before her mother’s death in 1963.
• Understand the difficult family decision about whether Beauvoir’s mother should undergo recommended surgery.
• Meet Françoise de Beauvoir through the story of her unhappy childhood and later marriage.
• Explore how Beauvoir questions her agreement to surgery throughout the remaining account.

About the Author

Simone de Beauvoir was French. She lived from 9 January 1908 to 14 April 1986. Her work included existentialist thought, writing, social theory, and feminist activism. She affected feminist existentialism and feminist theory, yet she did not call herself a philosopher and was not regarded as one at her death. She produced fiction, essays, short stories, life stories, and studies of philosophy, politics, and social matters. The Second Sex (1949) examined women's oppression. Among her novels were The Mandarins (1954) and She Came to Stay (1943). Her memoirs include Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée (1958). Her honors were the Prix Goncourt in 1954, the Jerusalem Prize in 1975, and the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 1978.