Distinguished French essayist, novelist, and Existentialist, Simone de Beauvoir was known for her left-wing political views and her rejection of society's traditional roles for women. As a philosophy student at the Sorbonne, she first encountered Jean-Paul Sartre, with whom she would maintain a lifelong relationship. Among her most important works was the feminist treatise "Le Deuxieme Sexe" (The Second Sex) published in 1949.