Name: The Woman Destroyed
Rating: 4.025 (60 reviews)
ISBN: 9780394711034

Simone De Beauvoir

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

Emily McMeans

“When I was a child, when I was an adolescent, books saved me from despair: that convinced me that culture was the highest of values, and it is impossible for me to examine this conviction with an objective eye.”

“This sluggishness of the heart is called indulgence and wisdom: in fact it is death settling down within you. Not yet: not now.”

Many women have felt this way when a man does something for a woman’s benefit but is committed to deriving no pleasure from it. It is hard for women, in my view, to stomach kindness that doesn’t come from an enjoyment of being kind as is so often the case in our relationships with other women. Needless to say, this line will be used often by me.

“I ought to have been grateful for his kindness: but I was not. I was hurt by his indifference.”

Macy HB

The eternal youth of the world makes me feel breathless. 

What a relief! It is so tiring to hate someone you love.

All my life it will be two o’clock in the afternoon one Tuesday in June.

Simone de Beauvoir

By the world-famous writer and feminist Simone de Beauvoir, here are three moving stories which eloquently express her understanding of women and the crises they face in mid-life.

coco nini

I felt like for each of these stories I had lived their lives in such a brutally honest way. The third story was absolutely repulsive and dreadful and uncomfortably relatable as a story women would understand. 

Jenn Doan 

This book was insanely hard to read and equally an amazing read. From the stories to the style of writing - chefs kiss (but also extremely sad.) 

Rabia Sohail

a segunda historia me tomou mais tempo mas ainda assim um livro completo e tocante, me senti do mesmo modo quando li caderno proibido... desejando a liberdade dessas mulheres a todo momento 

camile

Sohini Roy

i felt like this book just got slower with every story

aileeeeeeen

3 different stories from a woman about the anguish, sadness, pain, and feeling like a failure always be devastated for me. I feel upset, sad even reading this. sometimes I want to hit the wall just to let out my rage. it is rather to portray of woman’s emotions in their world.

I think I liked this book, it just really sent me into a spiral about my relationship. 

vanessa

This book scared me on a psychological level and has definitely redefined some of my views on marriage. Nevertheless, I thought it was brilliant. I’m a Simone de Beauvoir fan.

Although I think this book tackled some really interesting themes and topics, I found the writing far too complex and in some areas pretentious. 

Perhaps I found it jarring because the two books I’ve read before it were easy-going? 

The book is comprised of three short stories that all examine women’s dependence on men. I managed to get through the first and second short stories within the book and wasn’t blown away. 

However, after reading other people’s reviews it seems the third and final story is where the book seems to get its most praise. Maybe I’ll pick it up and finish it when I’m in the mood to read about depressed french women, but right now it’s not for me!

Robyn Claridge

Although I think this book tackled some really interesting themes and topics, I found the writing far too complex and in some areas pretentious. 

Perhaps I found it jarring because the two books I’ve read before it were easy-going? 

The book is comprised of three short stories that all examine women’s dependence on men. I managed to get through the first and second short stories within the book and wasn’t blown away. 

However, after reading other people’s reviews it seems the third and final story is where the book seems to get its most praise. Maybe I’ll pick it up and finish it when I’m in the mood to read about depressed french women, but right now it’s not for me!

reann

I didn’t quite enjoy this one like I thought I would. I wasn’t into the plot and I didn’t relate with the protagonists at all. This book was beautifully written (translated) which should have been a breeze to read but maybe this book was just not for me.

melis

3,75⭐️ 
üçüncü hikaye.. kaç tane duygudan duyguya atladım bilmiyorum🫶🏼

esperanza 

pozie

French literature truly is its own genre of writing. These stories were so brutally honest on some of the experiences of being a woman. The social oppression, the emotional turmoil, … men. It was absolutely devastating.

charisa

wow, that was actually quite good? i went in expecting a whole lot of pretension, but instead came away with respect for de beauvoir's ability to capture spiraling madness and the unique weight of societal expectations on women. 

funnily enough, i read this in parallel with an interview between mieko kawakami and haruki murakami (ok yes, i'm sorry, everything comes back to japanese lit lmao), where kawakami essentially grills murakami about his erm... polarizing depictions of women. i think she put her concerns really well: "a common reading is that [murakami's] male characters are fighting their battles unconsciously, on the inside, leaving the women to do the fighting in the real world." 

not to bash on murakami specifically, but in some ways, we grasp the woman's perspective across de beauvoir's three novellas, the other side rendered vulnerable to psychosis due to ageism, expectations around motherhood, distant husbands. in other words, "fighting in the real world". consequently, sorrow, insecurity, and the feeling of time slipping through one's fingers all play into this heady sense of madness and paranoia that heightens with each story. most impressively i think, de beauvoir communicates all this delicately with nuanced perspective, never really giving into low-hanging manhater fruit. 

5 stars for the first story, 3 for the second just because i can't deal with unending run-on sentences lmao, and 4.5 for the last.

anna near

There are three short stories in this collection, each of which centers on a "Woman Destroyed." So all three stories were completely depressing and made me want to kill myself-but only after going on a genocidal rampage fueled by the misandry this book gave me.
In short: I loved it.

fira

why waste money on birth control when you can read the woman destroyed and convince yourself no man is worth the emotional scar

The Woman Destroyed

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