'One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman', wrote Simone de Beauvoir in her controversial best-seller The Second Sex (1949), widely acclaimed as the founding book of modern feminism. This concise and up-to-date appraisal of the life and works of the quintessential feminist intellectual draws on the most recent scholarship on Beauvoir's work, and newly-published and extant volumes of her diaries and correspondence, to allow the reader unrivalled access to the voice of this pivotal modern figure.