The Woman Destroyed (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) [Paperback]

Praise for THE WOMAN DESTROYED:

‘In these immensely intelligent stories about the decay of passion, Simone de Beauvoir shares with other women novelists the ability to write about emotion in terms of direct experience. What is unique and supremely valuable in her work is the capacity to retain at the same time a coolness and critical detachment towards her material.’ Sunday Times

‘Intensely readable, with a return to warmth and identification with the characters that made THE MANDARINS outstanding’ New Statesman

Praise for Simone de Beauvoir:

‘Simone de Beauvoir is a writer whose every work I pounce on eagerly – her vision is so wide, the tale she tells is so interesting, her characterisation so psychologically profound’ YORKSHIRE POST

‘Simone de Beauvoir has the true novelist's gift of selecting detail and creating individuals whilst refusing to sum up situations’ A.S. BYATT

'The Woman Destroyed' is a collection of three stories, each an exquisite and passionate study of a woman trapped by circumstances, trying to re-build her life.

In the first story, 'The Age of Discretion', a successful scholar fast approaching middle age begins to feel that 'life is going to take back everything it has given me' when her trouble-free existence is threatened by a double shock – her son's abandonment of the career she has chosen for him and the harsh critical rejection of her latest academic work. 'The Monologue' is an extraordinary New Year's Eve outpouring of invective from a woman consumed with bitterness and loneliness after her son and husband have left home. And finally, in the title piece, Simone de Beauvoir tells the story of Monique, trying desperately to resurrect her life (“I want to live a little for myself after all this time. I have plans by the dozen.”) after her husband confesses to an affair with a younger woman.

Compassionate, lucid, full of wit and knowing, Simone de Beauvoir's rare insight into the inequities and complexities of women's lives is unsurpassable.

“In these immensely intelligent stories about the decay of passion, Simone de Beauvoir shares with other women novelists the ability to write about emotion in the terms of direct experience. What is unique and supremely valuable in her work is the capacity to retain at the same time a coolness and critical detachment towards her material.”
SUNDAY TIMES

“Intensely readable, with the warmth and identification with the characters that made 'The Mandarins' so outstanding.”
NEW STATESMAN