Sartre drew Achille Bergere’s seduction from Beauvoir’s friend Marie-Ange Lamblin but never admitted it.

Evidence

Despite being older at the time than her character, Beauvoir showed the same lack of understanding and the same shock manifested by the younger Marguerite. Finally, I should point out that Denis has many of the same character traits as Beauvoir’s cousin Jacques (albeit in exaggerated form), with whom Beauvoir was in love during her youth and of whom she wrote extensively in Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter. Th e character of Achille Bergère could certainly have been inspired by Jean Cocteau or André Breton, as others have suggested, but as far as the character’s actions are concerned (especially during the act of seduction), Sartre certainly borrowed from Marie-Ange Lamblin. Sartre seems to give a little wink to Beauvoir in situating the sexual encounter in Rouen (where she was a teacher from 1932 to 1936). Nonetheless, he never admitted to borrowing the character. When asked by Michel Rybalka and Michel Contat, he said: “Th ere is no model for this character; I invented him from scratch.” Beauvoir never said anything to contradict what Sartre said. Was this an omission or an act of politeness? — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 515

Categorization

• XREF: This bears directly on the core the reader is researching: authorship and influence between Beauvoir and Sartre.
• QUESTION: Beauvoir’s silence when Sartre denied a model for Bergere — omission or politeness? A live historiographical question about her complicity in his denials.