In three “immensely intelligent stories about the decay of passion” (The Sunday Herald Times [London]), Simone de Beauvoir draws us into the lives of three women, all past their first youth, all facing unexpected crises.
Enthralling as faction, suffused with de Beauvoir’s remarkable insights into women, The Woman Destroyed gives us a legendary writer at her best.
The Woman Destroyed (Pantheon Modern Writers)
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Witty, immensely adroit . . . These three women are believable individuals presented with a wry mixture of sympathy and exasperation."
—The Atlantic
"A remarkable feat of empathy."
—The Times Literary Supplement
"Brilliant craftsmanship."
— Harper's
—The Atlantic
"A remarkable feat of empathy."
—The Times Literary Supplement
"Brilliant craftsmanship."
— Harper's
Language Notes
Text: English, French (translation)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 47 people found the following review helpful
By "me-jane"
Format:Paperback
This was my first experience of de Beauvoir, and I remember it vividly: I was seventeen and staying at my grandparents house, supposedly studying for my final high school exams, but it was a sweltering afternoon and I was bored and listless; I found an old 70s copy of "The Woman Destroyed" on the bookshelf (it must have belonged to my radical aunt during her university days.) Anyway, I picked it up and couldn't stop reading until I finished it. While "The Woman Destroyed" described experiences very removed from my own limited seventeen year old world - mainly, the pain experienced by three different women as they grow old and watch their children, husbands and even sanity abandon them - these stories absorbed me totally. These are intense, complicated, ambiguous tales, and de Beauvoir has a breathtaking ability to capture and elucidate the knottiest of emotions. It's certainly a bleak collection of stories; de Beauvoir is unflinching and sheds no sentimental tears for her women characters. They are wrenchingly, sometimes pathetically human, and that's why you come to inhabit them so completely and care about them so much. Highly recommended.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By I. E. Kostro
Format:Paperback
This are three short stories potraying three middle class women who are past their prime and face crisis in their lives. Simone de Beauvoir - existentialist philosopher and feminist reflected the conditiion of her contemporaries with genuine insight and understanding. Written almost 40 years ago the book did not loose its actuality, to the contrary , it's very moving.
I would recommend this small masterpiece to anyone, but I think that mature women's audience is going to appreciate and understand it the most.
I would recommend this small masterpiece to anyone, but I think that mature women's audience is going to appreciate and understand it the most.
17 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Good gods, how French women needed the feminism De Beauvoir sought to bring them. I wish I didn't sometimes think they still did....
When Monique in the title story reflects that she should have known her marriage was on the skids when her husband told her she should buy a one-piece bathing suit, she immediatley reflects guiltily that she has let her thighs get fat, that her stomach is no longer completely flat... If I were Monique, I might reflect that it was a missed chance to craquer cher Maurice on the head with a deckchair.
Instead, Monique immediately stops eating (quelle surpise) and the first thing her estranged daughter says to her is that her resulting weight loss suits her. It's no wonder that after fifteen years of this, Monique is gimpless when Maurice starts an affair with a younger woman.
Sans doute, de Beauvoir was attempting a critique of such overmastering dependency, but it's also very, very raw-feeling. The price paid by those chic women for thier polish and beauty is this overpowering, constant self-scrutiny; no wonder existentialism, no wonder a modern book like Thornytorinx (in case you think the problem is solved).
This is powerful, true stuff, then, which reminded me of some of Dorothy Parker's best stories (without the humour) but I also felt irrtated with the spineless protagonists of all three stories. Don't be so needy, I wanted to scream. Go to a bar. Go to a jardin. Go to a boulanger. Live a little, before you finally die. In other words, the book feels not so much dated as in need of contestation. I would have enjoyed it more if another character had voiced the limitations of the protagonists' viewpoints.
When Monique in the title story reflects that she should have known her marriage was on the skids when her husband told her she should buy a one-piece bathing suit, she immediatley reflects guiltily that she has let her thighs get fat, that her stomach is no longer completely flat... If I were Monique, I might reflect that it was a missed chance to craquer cher Maurice on the head with a deckchair.
Instead, Monique immediately stops eating (quelle surpise) and the first thing her estranged daughter says to her is that her resulting weight loss suits her. It's no wonder that after fifteen years of this, Monique is gimpless when Maurice starts an affair with a younger woman.
Sans doute, de Beauvoir was attempting a critique of such overmastering dependency, but it's also very, very raw-feeling. The price paid by those chic women for thier polish and beauty is this overpowering, constant self-scrutiny; no wonder existentialism, no wonder a modern book like Thornytorinx (in case you think the problem is solved).
This is powerful, true stuff, then, which reminded me of some of Dorothy Parker's best stories (without the humour) but I also felt irrtated with the spineless protagonists of all three stories. Don't be so needy, I wanted to scream. Go to a bar. Go to a jardin. Go to a boulanger. Live a little, before you finally die. In other words, the book feels not so much dated as in need of contestation. I would have enjoyed it more if another character had voiced the limitations of the protagonists' viewpoints.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Still so True!
The title story teaches us: Nothing can destroy a woman but a man, or even better, a woman can destroy herself only because of a man! Read more
Published on April 10, 2008 by Stella
3.0 out of 5 stars
Title story is compelling; all three are depressing.
This book contains three short stories, each of them about a "Woman Destroyed." Two are utterly depressing, and one is incoherent. Read more
Published on June 20, 2007 by Alegra Bartzat
4.0 out of 5 stars
Forget the term "Feminism" if you plan on reading this book.
Too many people can't separate the ideas of "militant feminism" from De Beauvoir, and why this is, I can't understand. Read more
Published on April 14, 2002 by Alexiel
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book!
This is the first book I read from Simone de Beauvoir and I was very impressed. As usual, she is very realistic and thoughtfully describes the feelings of the three women in the... Read more
Published on November 20, 2000
