The Image of Her

A compelling novel about the requirement to be perfect, without completely losing sight of yourself - by the greatest feminist of the twentieth-century, Simone de Beauvoir.

Laurence lives what appears to be an ideal existence. Her life features all the trappings of the 1960s Parisian bourgeoisie: money, a handsome husband, two daughters and a lover. She also has a successful career as an advertising copywriter, though her mind unbidden writes copy whilst she''s at home, and dreams of domesticity in the office.

But Laurence is a woman whose happiness was relegated long ago by the expectation of perfection. Relentlessly torn by the competing needs of her family, it is only when her 10-year-old daughter, Catherine, starts to vocalise her despair about the unfairness of the world that Laurence resists.

TRANSLATED BY LAUREN ELKIN