Woman Destroyed (Pantheon Modern Writers) [Paperback]

Simone de Beauvoir (Author)

Book Description

Series: Pantheon Modern Writers | Publication Date: August 12, 1987

These three long stories draw us into the lives of three women, all past their first youth, all facing unexpected crises. In the title story, the heroine's serenity is shattered when she learns that her husband is having an affair. In "The Age of Discretion," a successful, happily married professor finds herself increasingly distressed by her son's absorption in his young wife and her worldly values. In "The Monologue," a rich, spoiled woman, home alone on New Year's Eve, pours out a lifetime's rage and frustration in a harrowing diatribe. Enthralling as fiction, suffused with de Beauvoir's remarkable insights into women, The Woman Destroyed gives us a legendary writer at her best.

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."

-- Times Literary Supplement

"Brilliant craftsmanship." -- Harper's

Cover photograph by Christine Rodin Cover design by Louise Fili

Pantheon Books, New York

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon (August 12, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394711033
• ISBN-13: 978-0394711034
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.5 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #419,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A surprise, March 16, 2003

By 

"me-jane" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Woman Destroyed (Pantheon Modern Writers) (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.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars women of age, January 27, 2007

By 

I. E. Kostro (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Woman Destroyed (Pantheon Modern Writers) (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.

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and very sad, February 16, 2006

By 

D. M. Purkiss "Diane" (Oxford, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Woman Destroyed (Pantheon Modern Writers) (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.