SOURCE: "A Shared Predicament," in New Statesman, Vol. 77, January 10, 1969, p. 51.

In the following review of Beauvoir's collection The Woman Destroyed, Tindall argues that the women protagonists featured in the three novellas suffer from a "human condition" rather than "exclusively feminine misfortunes. "

At 55 Simone de Beauvoir wrote in the third volume of her autobiography: To grow older is to define oneself. . . . I have written certain books, not written others'. She puts the same thought into the mind of the 60-year-old teacher in the first of her three new stories: 'All in all my literary work will remain what it is: I've seen my limits.' The limitations imposed by ageing seem to have preoccupied her much in recent years. In view of the way that in all her writing, not just in her memoirs, she candidly invites the reader to participate in her personal journey through life, it seems...