Monologue
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Summary
In "The Age of Discretion," a middle-aged professional woman voices her dissatisfaction and anxiety about herself, her husband, and her son's marriage and career prospects. "The Monologue" is entirely the rambling of a single mother, whose neurotic words conceal the anguish of her younger daughter's suicide. "The Woman Destroyed" takes the form of a diary, tracing a housewife's inner journey as she confronts her husband's affair. Beauvoir portrays three women in crisis: one who prides herself on being a good mother and tries to control everything; one full of resentment and worry about family and children; and one abandoned by her husband, utterly at a loss. The collection carries significant sociological weight as Beauvoir's reflection on women's fate and living conditions: "the woman destroyed is the victim of the life she has chosen; dependence on the family has cost her everything..." "Her way of taking revenge is the monologue."
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in existentialist literature and philosophy who hope to feel ideas concretely embodied in fiction
- Literary lovers drawn to deep psychological portraiture and the dissection of complex inner worlds
- Readers who want to know Beauvoir's important literary work beyond The Second Sex
- Readers with a reflective awareness of the power structures behind gender roles and family relationships
Not a good fit for
- Readers seeking light entertainment or warm, healing stories
- Readers uncomfortable with stream-of-consciousness writing or a repressed, gloomy narrative style
Reading tips
- It is recommended to read the three monologues as a whole, to appreciate how Beauvoir uses different perspectives and social classes to jointly sketch a three-dimensional picture of women's existence.
- While reading, pay attention to the self-contradiction and self-persuasion in the characters' speech; this is the key to Beauvoir's revelation of "bad faith," a core existentialist concept.
- After reading, you might combine it with Beauvoir's philosophy to consider how much of the women's predicament in the book stems from external social structures and how much from personal choice and responsibility.
About the publisher
Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 懂事年龄
- 独白
- 筋疲力尽的女人
FAQ
What is the relationship between Les Belles Images and Beauvoir's The Second Sex?
Is the style of this book very oppressive?
Why is the book titled Les Belles Images?
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About the author
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) was a French existentialist writer, philosopher, and pioneering feminist theorist, born and died in Paris. She graduated from the Sorbonne, passed the philosophy agrégation in 1929 and met Sartre, and in 1945 co-founded Les Temps modernes with Sartre and others. Her landmark work The Second Sex laid the foundation of modern feminist theory, examining women's condition through facts, myths, and lived experience; her novel The Mandarins won the 1954 Prix Goncourt. Her autobiographical works, including All Said and Done, Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, A Very Easy Death, and The Ethics of Ambiguity, combine philosophical reflection with literary quality and span biography, social and cultural criticism, and foreign literature, earning her a wide readership in the Chinese-speaking world.
Zhang Xiangyun is a Chinese author about whom little public information is available; neither her dates of birth and death nor her educational background are clearly recorded. According to the holdings in this database, she has two works, the representative one titled Monologue (Dubai), and her books are commonly classified under foreign literature. This classification suggests that her writing may relate to translation, cross-linguistic writing, or the study of foreign literature, though the available material is not sufficient to confirm her specific identity or the scope of her work. The title Monologue points to an inward, soliloquy-like mode of narration, implying that the work may emphasize the presentation of individual experience and the portrayal of characters' inner lives, with a language that may favor introspective and restrained expression. Because biographical and authorial statements are lacking, it is difficult to judge the full range and development of her style, or to assess the actual influence of her works among readers and in academic circles. This description is based solely on the cataloguing information in the database and offers no speculative additions regarding her life, honors, or the content of her works.
