| Summary: | In the end of the 18th century, the first French autobiographical work was written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Almost 200 years later, the two French authors and philosophers Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre published their autobiographies. Beauvoir released her Mémoires d’une jeune fille rangée in 1958 and Sartre published Les Mots in 1964. The audience has both loved and criticized the two works. Especially the autobiography of Jean-Paul Sartre was expected for a very long time, thanks to the fact that he had told his audience he would write a work about his life. As the authors lived together during a big part of their lives, it is especially interesting to study the resemblances and the differences of their way of writing and also of the contents of the autobiographies. The purpose of this literary essay is to make a comparison between the two autobiographies, examining the order of narrative, the reasons for writing, the chronology and the interest in children’s literature. The analysis is primarily based on the theorist Philippe Lejeune’s work concerning the autobiographical pact and the identity of name. Researches made by French critics claim that the autobiographical work of Beauvoir and Sartre differ. One of these critics is Philippe Lejeune. This analysis will show that, even if there is a difference between sex, family and the reasons for writing, there are many resemblances, some of them more or less expected than others. It will also show that both authors resemble when it comes to choice of memories, order of narrative and literary background. The analysis also puts the presence of the autobiographical pact under the light.
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