Simone de Beauvoir's 1966 novel, Les Belles Images, has been given a beautiful translation by Lauren Elkin. This very French, very 1960s portrayal of Laurence trying to find her place in a rapidly changing world - she tries to please everyone and be the best version of what others want her to be - wife, mother and lover. Then her 10 year old daughter, whose awakening into an adult world, challenges Laurence's perspective on life and it becomes certain things must change.

Being written by an intellectual, philosopher and influential writer the stature of De Beauvoir, one expects greatness, and the intimate and focused nature of The Image of Her shows a different side to its writer, whilst retaining much of the societal and philosophical discussions which were the focus of her career. I enjoyed reading this one very much and found it's characters well drawn and engaging. It is a slim novel in size but manages to pack a lot in, but never feels overwhelming and never loses it's razor sharp focus. Having only ever read The Second Sex - her monumental work of feminist theory - reading The Image of Her makes me keen to try some of her other novels.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Laurence is a well-groomed woman with a good job in Paris, a husband, two daughters, a lover, and a home that people admire. She moves through a world of sleek surfaces—advertising offices, smart interiors, polite affairs—keeping everything in order, including herself. But something’s beginning to slip, her life feels “full of empty things.”

This is a short, subtle, and rather elusive novel—measured, precise, and quietly disconcerting. It moves with a composed elegance that lets you think, at first, that not much is happening. But there’s a steady undertow to it.

Elkin’s translation is particular, deliberate, and cool without being cold, and it builds mood through suggestion more than action.

Beauvoir is circling something—identity, appearance, what we present to others and what we hide even from ourselves. She doesn’t name these things outright, rather she lets them surface and submerge, repeatedly, in slightly different forms.

There’s a sense of emotional drift throughout. Characters don’t collapse or erupt—they adjust, they rearrange. Everything happens in minor key: a pause, a look away, something not quite said. It’s a novel about compromise, in the broadest and most mundane sense.

Beauvoir doesn’t moralise, and she doesn’t offer answers. What you’re left with is a steady accumulation of tension and contradiction—lives that work, technically, but still feel somehow hollowed out. It’s not a sentimental book, but it isn’t cynical either. It just holds the discomfort and leaves you to sit with it.

Quietly impressive.

It an honour to read something early from someone as influential and powerful as Simone de Beauvoir in the feminist narrative. Whilst short, this is strong and powerful, showing generation of women at different stages of life.

Interesting, and thought provoking.

The Image of Her by Simone de Beauvoir offers a poignant exploration of the complexities faced by women striving for perfection. Set in 1960s Paris, it follows Laurence, a woman who seemingly has it all—a handsome husband, two daughters, a successful career and a lover. Yet beneath this veneer of success, Laurence is burdened by the expectation of perfection, which has long suppressed her happiness.

As Laurence navigates the demands of family and work, she finds herself increasingly overwhelmed. Her daughter, Catherine, begins to question the world’s unfairness, prompting Laurence to reflect on her own life and the labels she carries. The unraveling of her mother's life, following the departure of her lover for a younger woman, forces Laurence to confront her own discontent.

De Beauvoir’s focus on three generations of women offers an intimate and thought-provoking look at the challenges of self-realisation and societal pressure. The rich descriptions of place are vivid, almost making the setting a character in itself. However, the heavy and often bleak themes of the book make it a challenging read, far from a light-hearted escape. The Image of Her is a deep, reflective work that will resonate with readers who appreciate complex portrayals of women’s lives.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

In *The Image of Her* (originally *Les Belles Images*), Simone de Beauvoir crafts a sharp, introspective critique of bourgeois femininity in 1960s Paris. Through the lens of a seemingly successful woman balancing career, family, and an affair, de Beauvoir exposes the glossy illusions of modern life and the quiet despair beneath them. Elegant and unsettling, the novel probes the disconnect between appearance and authenticity, making it a subtle yet powerful exploration of existential and feminist themes. It’s a brief but incisive portrait of a woman questioning the very image she's meant to uphold.

This was a heavy read for a such a slim book.

Laurence has it all - a good marriage, two children, money, a great job and a lover. Yet still Laurence is struggling with life. As an copywriter at an advertising agency she finds herself mentally writing copy as she goes about her home life and daydreaming about home while she's at work. Life is just ticking along when suddenly it starts to unravel. Daughter Catherine starts questioning why people exist, specially the sad ones. Perplexed as to how to answer her daughter, Laurence begins to contemplate the labels she wears as a wealthy woman in 1960's Paris. Then her mother's lover leavers her for a (much) younger woman and Laurence is even more perplexed by her mother's unravelling before her eyes.

With the focus here very much on the three generations of women and how they react to the things that happen to them, we see the world through Laurence's eyes. She begins to question everything herself and only when her daughter is sent to a Psychologist does Laurence decide to free herself from her constraints and put her foot down.

This is a story that is rich in detail, places are described evocatively and almost become characters too. However, it is a story that is weighed down by it's heavy and depressing content and is not a light read by any stretch.

Fans of Simone de Beauvoir will love it but if it's your first of her novels then I would give it a miss and start with 'The Inseperables' which was brilliant.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a new translation by Lauren Elkin of de Beauvoir's 1966 [book:Les belles images|1202728]. Drawing broadly on her [book:Le deuxième sexe, I|21124]/[book:The Second Sex|8500], it's indicative of second-wave feminism, fictionalising the fate of a woman who realises that she has been forced into a series of postures or images labelled 'woman'. Her bourgeois comfort, her career as a copywriter, her husband, lover and two children are supposed to be all she needs for spiritual well-being, and her discontent is pathologised as 'depression' - a mild form of the 'madness' that is so often the diagnosis of women who do not conform to the feminine 'images' of their time.

Importantly, de Beauvoir shows here three generations of women: Laurence's mother who is set adrift when she is abandoned by her lover (who, of course, at 56 decides he'd rather have a 19 year old...), Laurence herself as that mediating generation of women of around de Beauvoir's own age, and her daughter Catherine, who is being sent off to see a psychiatrist when Laurence intervenes to give her child a liberation that she never had. In that sense, this is an optimistic narrative of feminist progression, written at a time when de Beauvoir might well have been shocked and despairing at the current roll-back of basic female rights over our bodies that was in her future.

As a novel this feels like fictionalised political philosophy - perhaps targeting an audience who might not have chosen to read The Second Sex - it's palatable, it's still relatable (even if there's little new here for today's women), it's a salutary reminder of where feminism has come from. It's a quick read and still has things to say to today's feminists.