"From their first meeting in the summer of 1929, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir shared an intense, passionate, and sometimes painful love-affair that was to last fifty-one tempestuous years. As the creators of existentialism, Sartre and Beauvoir became an inspiration for their generation, the model couple of the counter-culture." "But behind the legend lies a dark story of collusion and betrayal, sexual, social and political. A story which reveals the dangerous side to their philosophy of free love, for the search for authenticity was, in their private lives, a sham. To keep Sartre's love, Beauvoir sacrificed the girls she seduced. Sartre clandestinely compromised with the Nazis and fell into a Soviet honey-trap, his passion for a KGB spy leading him to support a cruel and oppressive Communist regime." "A Dangerous Liaison reveals the full implications of Sartre and Beauvoir's sacrifices and betrayals, using unpublished sources - including recently discovered reports from the Russian archives - to cast new light on the legend that this notorious, brilliant couple created."--Jacket.