The Stepford Wives (Paperback)
| Author: Ira Levin | Introduction: Peter Straub |
| Format: | Paperback | |||
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Product Details:
| After moving to the ideal suburban community of Stepford, Connecticut, with her husband and children, Joanna Eberhart is stunned by the subservient and complacent nature of the women of the town as she struggles to establish a womens liberation group, but she soon discovers the terrifying secret behind the womens behavior. Reprint. *Author: Levin, Ira *Publication Date: 2002/08/01 *Number of Pages: 123 *Binding Type: Paperback *Language: English *Depth: 0.25 *Width: 5.25 *Height: 8.25 |
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From the Publisher:
For Joanna, her husband, Walter, and their children, the move to beautiful Stepford seems almost too good to be true. It is. For behind the town's idyllic facade lies a terrible secret -- a secret so shattering that no one who encounters it will ever be the same. At once a masterpiece of psychological suspense and a savage commentary on a media-driven society that values the pursuit of youth and beauty at all costs, The Stepford Wives is a novel so frightening in its final implications that the title itself has earned a place in the American lexicon.
For Joanna, her husband, Walter, and their children, the move to beautiful Stepford seems almost too good to be true. It is. For behind the town's idyllic facade lies a terrible secret -- a secret so shattering that no one who encounters it will ever be the same. At once a masterpiece of psychological suspense and a savage commentary on a media-driven society that values the pursuit of youth and beauty at all costs, The Stepford Wives is a novel so frightening in its final implications that the title itself has earned a place in the American lexicon. |
Though it was written in 1972, when the Women's Liberation Movement was at its height, it is unclear just which side THE STEPFORD WIVES takes in the battle, as this classic thriller takes aim at both feminism and traditional patriarchal mores. The inspiration for two films (the 1975 original starring Katherine Ross and the more loosely adapted 2004 remake with Nicole Kidman) and three made-for-TV movie sequels, the book put the term "Stepford wife," meaning a robotically perfect and utterly submissive housewife, into the common vocabulary. Joanna Eberhardt, an aspiring photographer and active supporter of women's lib, has just moved with her family from New York City to the quiet, charming suburban town of Stepford, Connecticut. Soon, Joanna notices something odd about her neighbors. The immaculately dressed, amazingly sexy women of Stepford are obsessed with cooking, cleaning, and waiting on their husbands hand and foot, to the exclusion of any other interests, although town records show that most of them previously belonged to a now-defunct feminist organization. Why and how did they change? Joanna bands together with two other newcomers, Bobbi and Charmaine, to try and solve the mystery of Stepford before they, too, become just like the other Stepford Wives. As per usual, Levin evokes a mood of slowly heightening tension, injected with just enough skepticism so that the reader wonders if Joanna's fears are merely paranoid fantasies.
Praise
"Whether you read it as a fable of male bonding or of female bondage, you'll read it and so will a great many others." (starred review) 10/13/1972
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