The Second Sex
Simone de Beauvoir
The Second Sex
A two-volume study of how societies make woman the subordinate 'Other' and how that position is lived across a lifetime.
Read our takeLes Belles Images
Simone de Beauvoir
Les Belles Images
A short novel about a successful advertising executive who begins to see the human cost hidden by her polished social world.
- 1966
- Wry
- Melancholy
- intimate
- political
- voice-driven
About Simone de Beauvoir
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeLaurence has a career, a family, and access to affluent Parisian society, but the smooth images used to sell products also shape how her circle avoids suffering and doubt. Her daughter's questions force her to decide what kind of honesty a child should be allowed.
The story, in more detail
Laurence works in advertising, a profession that turns desire into controlled pictures. At home, the same language of comfort and success governs conversations about marriage, technology, poverty, and war.
Her daughter Catherine becomes troubled by suffering she learns about at school. The adults want to protect her by restoring the pleasant surface. Laurence recognizes that this protection may teach her daughter the same habits of denial.
The story
Laurence moves between advertising work, her marriage, her lover, and family gatherings in a prosperous postwar Paris circle.
A crisis in her parents' marriage exposes how carefully the family manages appearances and uncomfortable emotion.
Catherine's distress over suffering becomes the practical decision at the center of the book: whether to silence her questions or let her keep seeing what the adults ignore.
Why we recommend it
Why it matters
It is Beauvoir's sharpest short novel about consumer culture, respectable family life, and the stories prosperity tells about itself.
Where it fits
Read it after The Second Sex to see social roles operating through ordinary work and family conversation rather than a general historical argument.
What this book explores
Timeline
1966
Gallimard publishes Les Belles Images in Paris.
English editions
Translations publish the work under the title Les Belles Images; dates and wording vary by edition.
Book editions
Paperback
- Paperback
- Gallimard
- 1966
Reader reviews
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Read our takeLes Belles Images: frequently asked questions
What is Les Belles Images by Simone de Beauvoir about?
Laurence has a career, a family, and access to affluent Parisian society, but the smooth images used to sell products also shape how her circle avoids suffering and doubt. Her daughter's questions force her to decide what kind of honesty a child should be allowed.
When was Les Belles Images published?
Gallimard first published Les Belles Images in French in 1966.
Should I read Les Belles Images first?
Usually not. Start with The Second Sex for Beauvoir's major argument, Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter for her life, or The Mandarins for a novel, then return to Les Belles Images.