Beauvoir saw Nelson Algren (author of The Man With the Golden Arm, among others) as her life's true love—she called it ''a beautiful, corny love story." Her relationship with Sartre was just more cerebral, we guess. And hey, you can't win 'em all, JP. (Source.)

To be fair, Sartre was not exactly your average hunk. The guy was 4'11,', wall-eyed, and he loved him some speed—sometimes even hallucinating that lobsters were after him. No wonder Simone wasn't super devoted. (Source.)

It's possible, just possible, that Beauvoir didn't exactly rise up against the Nazis in World War II as much as she maybe could have. Let's put it this way: she isn't going to make the resistance hall of fame. (Source.)

Even as she penned the bible of women's lib—before Betty Friedan came along, of course—Beauvoir lived like a smothered 1950s housewife. Long live inconsistency! (Source.)

Simone de Beauvoir loved her some fashion mags. We guess she could overlook the whole objectification-of-women thing. (Source.)