THE SECOND SEX

Vintage, New York, 1974.  ISBN 0-394-71227-7.  Large mass market paperback, 814 pages plus13 pages of Index.  Good; wraps show edge and cover wear, age toning, sticker on lower front wrap; binding sound; scrape on upper rear wrap near spine; ink line on bottom edge.  Interior clean and unmarked with tanning pages.  ‘The central thesis of Mlle de Beauvoir’s book is that since patriarchal times women have in general been forced to occupy a secondary place in the world in relation to men, a position comparable in many respects with that of racial minorities in spite of the fact that women constitute numerically at least half of the human race, and further that this secondary standing is not imposed of necessity by natural “feminine” characteristics but rather by strong environmental forces of educational and social tradition under the purposeful control of men.’ (from Preface)