Book Genre: Classics, Cultural, European Literature, Feminism, Fiction, France, French Literature, Literary Fiction, Literature, Philosophy, Short Stories, Womens Alone with her husband, she gradually becomes aware of his concealments and actual lies that hide the fact that he is not really “eaten up by his profession” In “The Monologue”, the shortest of these stories, written in a stream-of-consciousness style, we read the feverish claim of a woman filled with rage and frustration after a lifetime of deceptions that perhaps she has forged for herself. A lifetime of pushing away the people she loves that seems hopeless.

The way I approached a question, my habit of mind, the way I looked at things, what I took for granted - all this was myself and it did not seem to me that I could alter it.” She screams how she is rotting all alone, how she is being trampled underfoot. She moans that she is “bored through the ground,” alone on New Year’s Eve. Simone de Beauvoir declared herself an author and a midwife of partner Jean Paul Sartre’s intellectual endeavors, rather than a philosopher. In her eyes, she wove complex existentialist and feminist ideology into her fiction and writing, rather than using her writing as a vehicle to disseminate her philosophies. Though The Woman Destroyed was generally praised, not all reviewers were as enthusiastic as the one above. Following is a review of the American edition that, though critical of the book’s tone, nonetheless offers a succinct synopsis of each story:

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My life was hurrying, racing tragically toward its end. And yet at the same time it was dripping so slowly, so very slowly now, hour by hour, minute by minute. One always has to wait until the sugar melts, the memory dies, the wound scars over, the sun sets, the unhappiness lifts and fades away.” In each story, the purpose and meaning of marriage, relationships, love, and life are drawn into question as their chloroformed contentment painfully unravels. Each woman and each reader participating in her journey struggles with the question: Nevertheless, the message of this stories can be heard loud and clear. Popular culture suggests that marriage and maternity are essential for the success and happiness of a woman. Simone de Beauvoir and her three protagonists tell us ‘Don’t buy it.’ Things are not that easy, happiness is hard work, and disappointment is unavoidable. A woman is not only a wife, nor only a mother, nor also only her job description. I hope we understand that someday. You have never had any confidence in him. And if he has no confidence in himself it is because he sees himself through your eyes.” In “The Age of Discretion,” the woman is faced with a young married son who suddenly tears himself free from her sphere of influence. She rejects him completely, refusing to see him. At the same time, she observes that she no longer seems to bring her husband any kind of happiness. She and he are not in accord over her treatment of their son.

The second novella, The Monologue, is a bitter screed by a woman left alone and abandoned at age 44. Her daughter, off on her own, died five years ago.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.” Tragedies are all right for a while: you are concerned, you are curious, you feel good. And then it gets repetitive, it doesn't advance, it grows dreadfully boring: it is so very boring, even for me.” The couple is both around 60. He still works as a scientist but feels only younger people can contribute. “Great scientists are valuable to science in the first half of their lives and harmful in the second.” [quote from Bachelard] She argues with him until her latest book that she thought of as 'filled with new insights’ is panned by both critics and friends as a summary of her earlier work. De Beauvoir did this by design. The first line of the story reads “The Monologue is her form of revenge.” She knows how agonizing it must be to endure the seemingly endless soliloquy, so she employs it to make a point. De Beauvoir demands the attention of the reader, challenging her to persevere through an avalanche of disarrayed thoughts and words. She claims space for herself, knowing that she deserves it. Alexander Thorp Suffused with de Beauvoir’s remarkable insights into women, The Woman Destroyed gives us a legendary writer at her best. Includes "The Age of Discretion," "The Monologue," and "The Woman Destroyed."

The first novella, The Age of Discretion, centers around the aging process and the end of careers of both husband and wife. In addition, there’s the bitter disappointment the woman feels after the son she has ‘groomed’ to follow in her footsteps as a professor turns thirty and changes career and political outlook to go into government service. His mother feels it’s all about his wife and father-in-law pushing him to make more money and get a ‘real’ Job. Amazingly she turns against her son in an incredibly brutal way. She throws her son out of her house and says things like “I cannot love anyone I do not respect.” And to her husband: “Do you think I ought to see him again?” [This is their son!] MONÓLOGO “Los niños nunca son otra cosa que semillas de canallas.” Un monólogo interior durísimo, devastador, fruto de la rabia, de la angustia, de una mujer de mediana edad afectada por serios problemas psicológicos y que se siente sola, abandonada y culpable. Una mujer con una infancia difícil, que, gracias a su belleza ahora marchita, ha vivido a costa de hombres ricos desde que su madre la arrojó en los brazos de su propio amante, y que, intentando no caer en los mismos errores con su hija, cometió otros de terribles consecuencias. “…hubiera merecido que me amaran. ¡Ah! he sido asquerosamente frustrada la vida no me ha hecho regalos.” Youth and what the Italians so prettily call stamina. The vigor, the fire, that enables you to love and create. When you’ve lost that, you’ve lost everything.”it's a collection of three stories about women past youth who, in short, are having lives they thought were settled suddenly cleaved into before and after. the first one was my favorite, five stars for it, but all three were clever and captivating and it's 4.5 altogether. de Beauvoir è regista che filma voci e corpi che si sfaldano sotto il peso del crollo di un castello su cui poggiava tutta la loro vita. 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 by Simone de Beauvoir – eBook Details These are the other two short stories by Simone de Beauvoir in the volume I'm reading. "The Monologue" is not to my taste, because it is written in the stream of consciousness style, which I generally don't like. It describes the point of view of a woman named Murielle, whose life hasn't been going well at all. Her daughter from her first marriage, Sylvie, apparently has died, and she is separated from her second husband, who has custody of their son, Francis. She is living alone in a noisy apartment and ruminating over her life and the people who have wronged her. I found it a little confusing to follow and couldn't see the point of the awkward presentation. The Woman Destroyed is Simone de Beauvoir’s beguiling fictional analysis of womanhood’s complexities. The work is a collection of three novellas, each featuring a different woman in crisis and trapped by circumstance. “The Age of Discretion” recounts the desperation of a successful professor and writer who feels her power and influence over her newly-married son slipping. “The Monologue” centers around an aging, rich woman sits at home, alone, and pours out her bitterness in a stream of consciousness diatribe. In the title story, an older heroine struggles to rediscover happiness after her husband confesses to an affair. The three stories, each captivating in its beautifully profound exploration of the woman’s mind, center around individuals battling the unstoppable passage of time, the inevitably of age, resounding loneliness, the indifference of loved ones, and the unfortunate decay of passion.

Despite the brevity of the book, many readers, both female and male, leave long, thoughtful musings on how the book has resonated with them. It could be that Simone de Beauvoir was tapping into a fictional form of confessional angst that was a bit before its time, and that has aged well. E’ il momento in cui si scopre l’architettura fallace su cui ci si era appoggiati e quando si vive completamente addossati a qualcuno o a qualcosa, si sa che nel momento in cui il sostegno manca si cade rovinosamente. Each story - spoiler alert - focuses on a woman, each of the three women stands in relationship to the narrator of Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, potential other adult selves maybe, so all three women are not only French, but specifically Parisian, and what I would call from a British point of view, upper middle class - research scientists, university academics, potential government ministers and the like though I suppose a government minister must by definition be upper class even if they are not particularly classy, but still I find myself bridling at that idea, a curious thing one's own prejudices. Each woman is in a crisis - sorry another spoiler - I hope you are keeping count.Outre le célèbre Deuxième sexe (1949) devenu l'ouvrage de référence du mouvement féministe mondial, l'œuvre théorique de Simone de Beauvoir comprend de nombreux essais philosophiques ou polémiques.