{"id":28641,"date":"2025-10-15T13:51:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T08:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/?p=28641"},"modified":"2025-10-15T13:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T08:21:08","slug":"vignettes-of-an-intimate-friendship-in-simone-de-beauvoirs-the-inseparables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/vignettes-of-an-intimate-friendship-in-simone-de-beauvoirs-the-inseparables\/","title":{"rendered":"Vignettes of an Intimate Friendship in Simone de Beauvoir\u2019s “The Inseparables”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\nBut what I admired most about her were the little habits she had that I never understood. Like when she saw a peach or an orchid, or even if someone just said one of those words to her, she shivered, and gooseflesh stood out on her arms. It was in those moments that I was most troublingly aware of the gift she had received from heaven, which I found so enthralling: her personality. Secretly I thought to myself that Andr\u00e9e was one of those prodigies about whom, later on, books would be written (12).<\/div>\n
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The intimacy and love that can exist within a friendship remains one of the most misunderstood and highly sensationalised terrains of human subjectivity. Moreover, in the case of women, intense friendships have always been viewed with a heightened suspicion \u2013 one of the many anxieties of an intrinsically patriarchal society. The above-quoted excerpt is from Simone de Beauvoir\u2019s (1908\u20131986) posthumously published novel Les Ins\u00e9parables<\/em>; a fictionalised account of her real life friendship with \u00c9lisabeth Lacoin (1907\u20131929), fondly Zaza. The passage delves into young Sylvie\u2019s (Simone) exceptional adoration for Andr\u00e9e (Zaza) whose quaint oddities \u2013 bodily reactions to seeing or even hearing \u2018peach\u2019 or \u2018orchid\u2019 \u2013 are noted with great care and awe. This passage is fascinating not just because of the masterful ease with which Beauvoir captures the tenderness in an intense, coming-of-age friendship, but more so because at its heart lies the tragic realisation that no matter what, one can never fully understand another\u2019s personality. Even though the duo is labelled \u2018the inseparables\u2019 by everyone, this realisation haunts Sylvie till the very end. The inability to understand Andr\u00e9e and her untimely death culminates in the writing of this book \u2013 as Sylvie had predicted \u2013 both on Andr\u00e9e\u2019s intriguing personality and the unique adoration that blossomed between the two girls in early twentieth century France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although written in 1954, Les Ins\u00e9parables<\/em> was published 66 years later in 2020, followed by two English translations in 2021. The reasons for this delay in publication have often been blamed on Jean-Paul Sartre\u2019s disinterest, however according to Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir (Simone\u2019s literary executrix) the novel was not \u201cwhat she wanted to do at the time\u201d, thus Simone chose to move away from fiction towards autobiography (Willsher, 2021). Nonetheless, even in her autobiography, and later works, Simone kept writing about (and sometimes editing out) Zaza. Evidently, the twelve-year long, fervent friendship she shared with Zaza left an indelible impression on one of the most prolific writers and feminist thinkers of the twentieth century. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this essay, I wish to explore the tones and textures of this intimacy which Simone and Zaza shared, reflected between Sylvie and Andr\u00e9e in The Inseparables<\/em>. Amid all speculations of Zaza being Simone\u2019s lesbian affair, I want to pause for a second and ask \u2013 how constricted is our imagination of an intimate friendship? Must intimacy be tied to the sexual or is it allowed a course of its own? Can a caress exist on its own, without becoming the prologue to a carnal act? For instance, when Sylvie intently observes Andr\u00e9e playing the violin, an urge to run her fingers through Andr\u00e9e\u2019s hair with \u201ctenderness and respect\u201d arises in her mind (94). This kind of touch seems to be sitting uncomfortably in uptight Victorian notions of female companionship and friendship. The radical possibility of physical and emotional intimacy without sexual ties and inclinations thoroughly unsettles and broadens the horizons of female friendships and shared solidarities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only those who have ever had pivotal female friendships while growing up would understand what Sylvie meant when she decided, \u201cLife without her would be death\u201d (16). Teenage female friendships are not easy and straightforward. They are often messy, overwhelming matters which stand us face-to-face with our first encounters with love, heartache, healing \u2013 they never completely leave us. The transition into this world of adult emotions is often marked by a bitterness: the longing for a return to innocence, with simultaneously rising curiosity and a discontent with familiar answers. It is within this complex emotional landscape that Sylvie and Andr\u00e9e discover each other and seek, in their companionship, a momentary solace from the cruelties of growing up. Adrienne Rich in her influential essay has termed such \u201cwoman-identified experience\u201d as \u2018lesbian continuum\u2019 wherein all women, irrespective of their sexual identity, keep \u201cmoving in and out of this continuum\u201d (648, 651).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from a relentless search for one\u2019s own identity, these formative years are also marked by a need to be understood, which is arguably the same as being loved for one\u2019s own sake. This is something which is central to Sylvie and Andr\u00e9e, and is also seen in their real-life counterparts. In the selection of \u2018Archive Material\u2019 at the end of the novel is a 1927 letter to Simone, where nineteen-year-old Zaza writes \u2013 \u201cThere is no feeling in the world more sweet than knowing that there is someone who understands you entirely, and upon whose friendship one may count absolutely.\u201d Thus emerges an interesting contradistinction between Sylvie\u2019s failure to wholly understand Andr\u00e9e, and Zaza\u2019s claim that Simone did succeed in achieving precisely that. This fictional detour, I believe, is not a mere literary trope generating a tragic, lopsided account, but rather it marks a deliberate authorial decision to express the anxieties which accompany such intense friendships. When Pascal (Andr\u00e9e\u2019s lover) tells Sylvie \u2013 \u201c\u2018I know Andr\u00e9e as well as you\u2026and even better, because I can follow her down paths from which you are excluded\u2026 Andr\u00e9e has joys and consolations that you don’t know anything about\u201d \u2013 it shocks her to the extent that she is unable to speak further and walks away (113-114). Moreover, one has to remember, this is an age wherein even questions on sexuality as well religion are considered taboo, blasphemous and deliberately kept out of bounds even in fictional conversations among close friends. Madame Gallard\u2019s (Andr\u00e9e\u2019s mother) dictum aptly sums up the permissible aspirations of respectable ladies in that era: \u201cJoin a convent or get a husband; remaining unmarried is not a vocation\u201d (58). It comes as no surprise that Sylvie and Andr\u00e9e\u2019s inseparable bond, intellectual pursuits and long discussions on adult matters were met with Madame Gallard\u2019s stringent disapproval. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such were the strictures of the age when one of the most radical feminists of the twentieth century found her first love, friend and sign of rebellion. In her last letter to Zaza, twelve days before her death, Simone writes, \u201cI find happiness on every page, happiness in bigger and bigger writing. And I am closer to you now than ever before, my dear past, dear present, my dear inseparable friend.\u201d How does one ever overcome the traumatic impact of losing such a friend at the age of twenty-one? And eventually, it is only through the act of writing \u2013 so ominously spelt out in this last letter \u2013 that Simone would grapple with Zaza\u2019s loss. It seems as if in her act of writing, Simone found a way to stay inseparably tied to Zaza, bypassing death. The Inseparables<\/em> is a reminder of the most ordinary ways in which a truly exceptional adoration and female friendship are born. Beauvoir\u2019s beautifully poignant narrative is instructive in reemphasising the enormous importance of women\u2019s intimacies and rich inner lives in shaping feminist historiographies and orienting oneself in an alien, overtly patriarchal world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reference:<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. Beauvoir, S. de. (2020). Les Inse\u0301parables.<\/em> L\u2019Herne.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Beauvoir, S. de. (2021). The Inseparables<\/em> (Lauren Elkin, Trans.). Vintage Classics. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Rich, A. (1980). Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society<\/em>, 5(4), 631\u2013660. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1086\/493756<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Willsher, K. (2021, October 3). \u201cMy intimacy with Simone de Beauvoir was unique…it was love.\u201d<\/em> The Guardian. https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2021\/oct\/03\/simone-de-beauvoir-inseparables-sylvie-le-bon-de-beauvoir-daughter-interview <\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Cover image by Pronita Tripathi<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Must intimacy be tied to the sexual or is it allowed a course of its own?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":562,"featured_media":28648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4968,3],"tags":[3838,4689,5013,3903,121,5015,5010,5012,5014,5011],"class_list":{"0":"post-28641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-friendship-and-sexuality-2","8":"category-review","9":"tag-adrienne-rich","10":"tag-coming-of-age-2","11":"tag-emale-friendship-in-literature","12":"tag-female-friendships","13":"tag-feminism","14":"tag-queer-readings-of-the-inseparables","15":"tag-simone-de-beauvoir","16":"tag-the-inseparables","17":"tag-womens-intimacy","18":"tag-zaza-lacoin"},"menu_order":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/562"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28641"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28702,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28641\/revisions\/28702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}