The Woman Destroyed [Paperback]

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 Destroyedgives us a legendary writer at her best.

THE AGE OF DISCRETION  •  9

THE MONOLOGUE  •  87

THE WOMAN DESTROYED  •  121 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

Simone de Beauvoirwas born in Paris in 1908. In 1929 she became the youngest person ever to obtain theagrégationin philosophy at the Sorbonne, placing second on the exam to Jean-Paul Sartre. She taught at lycées in Marseille and Rousen from 1931 to 1937, and in Paris from 1938 to 1943. After World War II, she emerged as one of the leaders of the existentialist movement, working with Sartre onLes Temps Modernes.The author of many acclaimed works, de Beauvoir was one of the most influential thinkers of her generation. She died in 1986.

Has my watch stopped? No. But its hands do not seem to be going around. Don’t look at them. Think of something else—anything else: think of yesterday, a calm, ordinary, easy-flowing day, in spite of the nervous tension of waiting.
 
Tender awakening. André was in an odd, curled-up position in bed, with the bandage over his eyes and one hand pressed against the wall like a child’s, as though in the confusion and distress of sleep he had needed to reach out to test the firmness of the world. I sat on the edglC˜