Book Review: "The Woman Destroyed" by Simone de Beauvoir

I have read a lot of Simone De Beauvoir in my life. These include the books The Second Sex, A Very Easy Death, Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter and some others. Most recently though, I have picked up from the library, a Simone de Beauvoir book I had never even heard of before entitled The Woman Destroyed. A brilliantly written book encased with Simone De Beauvoir's existentialist-tinted feminism, there is something deeply encapsulating but also absolutely despairing about this book. An introspective text that can be difficult for some to get into, it is riddled with hints and clues as to how existentialism is changing. Three stories have been woven together in this course of brilliance.

In the first section in which we see the first woman as well, we get a critique of the aging process. It is a conflict of the generations in which people who are getting older are told that their contributions are no longer worth as much as those of the younger generation. As the woman ages, she gets into fights with the people she lives with, she fails to even understand herself anymore and she is told that she will soon be of little use to anyone. This crisis is both feminine and existential and I adore how Simone De Beauvoir explores both sides of the philosophies. I will not reveal spoilers and so, will not be telling absolute details of what happens during the middle and end of this story and will miss out one of them entirely.

The Woman Destroyed is the longest story in the whole book in which a man confesses to his wife that he is having an affair. His wife lets him continue with it as she reasons that this is just something men tend to do. As she begins thinking, we see that the man has a job, stability and a sense of outgoingness whereas the woman has nothing, she works in the home and even with her friends she will only discuss her current situation. The conversations are limited. Again, this is the feminine and the existential coming together as the woman realises that she has practically had her entire life destroyed for the sake of a man. Simone De Beauvoir shows this as a very regular situation in which nothing extraordinary takes place. She is trying to state that this practically happens all the time and the only way to break out of it is to force yourself away.

Written brilliantly, Simone De Beauvoir is possibly one of my favourite writers. She blends feminism with a sense of existentialism as she tends to women's stories of being subjected to horrors, subjected to violence and subjected to emotional and psychological abuse at the hands of men. I think she is a shining example of what a woman writer should be and honestly, Simone De Beauvoir, Shirley Jackson and Joan Didion are basically the holy trinity of women writers for me at this point. I cannot say there are three better women writers I have read ever (if we have to add a fourth, I'd go for Ottessa Moshfegh).

In conclusion, I think that this is one of Simone De Beauvoir's finest efforts to produce a book in which three different stories converge upon the same philosophy: women who are getting existential about themselves because of the fact they have been imprisoned by men into lives they are contented to live but on the whole, do not want. Simone De Beauvoir is definitely one of the greatest novelists ever and honestly, yes, I will be reading all of her stuff in good time.