These short essays are engaging and lucid, but the arguments themselves somewhat simple (though not incorrect) if you are even indirectly familiar with Simone de Beauvoir's ideas from her magnum opus, The Second Sex. From an historical perspective, these texts are momentous. For example, we see that Simone de Beauvoir's most important and central thoughts (about freedom and the construction of sexual difference) were not inspired by or borrowed from Sartre, but quite fully preceded her relationship with him. ( )