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The Stepford Wives
By Ira Levin
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The internationally bestselling novel by the author of A Kiss Before Dying, The Boys from Brazil, and Rosemary's Baby.
With an Introduction by Peter Straub.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.
Book Actions
Start ReadingBook Information
The Stepford Wives
By Ira Levin
Description
The internationally bestselling novel by the author of A Kiss Before Dying, The Boys from Brazil, and Rosemary's Baby.
With an Introduction by Peter Straub.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.
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Reviews
Published in 1972 I can see why this book attracted a lot of attention. It's a short read, more like a novella. I was really pulling for Joanna. Now I want to watch the 1975 movie of this, not the Nicole Kidman version.
What a wonderfully creepy novella. I enjoyed it just as much as the movie (1975).
This has done absolutely nothing good for my paranoia. I was already against exclusivity and now I have a reason that doesn't sound like I'm whining about being left out.
Just read this again. I read it a really long time ago, not long after it came out, and I have to say I still enjoyed it the second time.
just watched the first episode of Secrets of the Stepford Wives and I can't wait to read this!
I've always loved the movie and until recently didn't know if was a book! The book did not disappoint! I love the movie AND the book. great story
amazing story!
One of the best book I have read in the last years.
First thing: Chuck Palahniuk needs to read books before he gives out about them - there are many complaints to be made about the Shopaholic books, that they are about a woman trying to get a man is not one of them. Second thing, this was really good and I'm mainly annoyed that was too familiar with the book before reading to have enjoyed it properly. I may revise the score upwards on a re-read some time in the future.I'll certainly be looking out other Ira Levin books.
The Stepford Wives, a story of women who have no means of self-expression, might have been the story of real women in Jordan, Syria or Yemen. Women who are utterly controlled by their husbands but look quite normal, fashionable even as they no longer (have to) wear hijab. But it's the story instead of American women whose husbands would like to control them in the same way and, like Arab men, have no controls on themselves whatsoever. Unable to fulfil this desire in the usual ways of living, they result to extremism. So the women are dehumanised in life and in the book.
Although this is a good, light read from one point of view, what it says about the nature of the majority of men is not light at all. In Arab society there are men, a few, who do not like the strictures their women have to live under, but most do not object at all. Some seek to deepen it even unto the utter keeping of women as private pleasures and public invisibility as in Saudi Arabia, and some, with some success, seek to spread their control of women into our own societies.
Ira Levin's book is as much a parable as it is entertainment.
Edit. For those who think that this desire for control of women is not in the nature of the majority of men, I'm talking globally, not just of people living in a couple of rich, secular, emancipated countries in the world, although that said, that is where the book is set.
Although this is a good, light read from one point of view, what it says about the nature of the majority of men is not light at all. In Arab society there are men, a few, who do not like the strictures their women have to live under, but most do not object at all. Some seek to deepen it even unto the utter keeping of women as private pleasures and public invisibility as in Saudi Arabia, and some, with some success, seek to spread their control of women into our own societies.
Ira Levin's book is as much a parable as it is entertainment.
Edit. For those who think that this desire for control of women is not in the nature of the majority of men, I'm talking globally, not just of people living in a couple of rich, secular, emancipated countries in the world, although that said, that is where the book is set.
I didn't really like this at all! Mostly I just couldn't stand the writing. I don't think it flowed well at all. Despite the book being really, really short, I took a while to get through it because the sentences just didn't flow into each other well for me. I liked the actual idea behind the story and I thought the characters were really interested. A few parts were amusing and some were creepy. Overall though I didn't find it every entertaining and certainly not memorable.
I read this a million years ago but I remember it so clearly. It was a sticky Ohio summer day and I was curled up in my grandmother's living room. My grandmother kept suggesting that I go outside instead of wearing my eyes out, but I was mesmerized by the Stepford Wives. I think it had a profound effect on my budding feminist self. I also remember accusing my mother of wanting nothing more than to be one of the Stepford wives. I was a rotten kid, for the record.
I have to give this book 5 stars because in the collective hour or so it took to read, it some how managed to play on my insecurities and leave me feeling completely awful. I don't know if "scary" is exactly the word I would use, but I have to admit I was nervous and anxious by the end... basically scared, yeah. I guess that is the word I would use.I've never read a book that used such simple language and was able to make me feel so strongly. It reminds me of reading chapter books like the Fudge series in elementary school ...except for how this book made me panicky and upset. I don't know if anybody else would react this strongly. It probably helps that I've never seen the movie, or even heard many cultural references, and that I generally have a lot of irrational anxieties to begin with. But it's a very quick read so I'd definitely recommend giving it a shot.
This was a short, but thought provoking book. It's a comedy, a thriller, a horror story, and a satire. Some argue that it's dated. but I think "The Stepford Wives" still makes a strong comment on present day issues (as sexism and prejudice still exist). I thought Ira Levin did an excellent job writing all of the characters (male and female). The plot flowed well, the dialog was sharp, and I enjoyed the characters.
I watched the newer Nicole Kidman version of The Stepford Wives when it first came out, having no idea that it was based on a book or that there was an original (and, from what I hear, far superior to the remake). So, when I saw this copy at The Friends of the Library Bookstore I was a little surprised and intrigued. A short 123 pages, The Stepford Wives is definitely worth reading.I love novels about suburbia and this novel quickly revealed the dysfunction of Stepford. Joanna and Walter have just moved to this idyllic area, and it is not long before Joanna realizes there is something terribly wrong with the women of Stepford. A great page turner, The Stepford Wives is well written and thought provoking.
Well, it has been many years since I first saw the movie. This book has been lying around my library, and I thought I'd pick it up and read it on a slow day.Two interesting things strike me. First, the book is very dated. The very notion of the interaction between the lead couple seems to be time-worn. Perhaps my interpretation is jaded a bit by what I view to be our current gender environment.Second, as great as the story is, it has lost its power to shock. In this era of doom and gloom, it seems as if the ending is anti-climatic.Maybe I just saw the original movie too long ago to really appreciate the story.
It was pretty short and to the point. The end was pretty hard to swallow, even after so many years have passed since it was written. I had to laugh when the pieces started to fit together, because there's just no way.I did like the slow progression of things, though, and I liked how the alliances held between the three women at the beginning started dropping off one by one. The constant cleaning endeavors of the other housewives was pretty funny, too, and I wasn't entirely sure if it was supposed to be.I read it in a couple hours, and I liked it all right, but it's not something that I'd give to all my friends, nor will it stay with me for very long. It is an odd little story, though.
Loved this book. I’ve seen both versions of the movie…but the book was GREAT! Clean writing, accessible and thought provoking while still being thoroughly entertaining!! A+, I’m certainly glad I finally took the time to read this. My only grip…I hate movie tie in covers.
I like the idea, and the execution was vaguely creepy, but the ending made it very blah.
The Stepford Wives manages to be both simple and complex. Even if you know the ending (and I think everybody does by now), there are still surprises and twists.
The singular plot doesnt leave you caring about any of the characters, which is probably why I didn't care if Johanna was replaced by a robot. Couple the shallowness of the writing with a premise that is unbelievable and Levin is lucky to get a 3 star rating from me. An adequate read if you have some time to kill.
In Stepford, the wives are perfect robots. An interesting idea, but poorly executed. Clunky prose and dialog.
A very short but tightly crafted novel. I found this suspenseful and shocking even though I knew the plot and finale from the classic film version (not the absurd 2004 remake). Of course, there are plot holes and surely at least one husband would have objected to the plan, and/or at least one wife would have managed to escape and tell all to, if not the disbelieving authorities then at least the sensation-hungry newspapers. But this does not really matter: the story is a superb creepy suspense story.
Creepy Book! But it was great.
Much better than the movie.
I was extremely pleased with this book, it was so concise and meticulously well timed. Though it was fairly short, you didn't feel as though you were missing something. Nothing was left out, no fluff was added, it was about as precise as a novel could get. It was written during a time when tensions were highly felt between men and women. Women's lib was going full swing and there was a bit of a two edged sword with a lot of women who were married and simultaneously feeling a great resentment and suspicion towards many men.Along with that, the book touched on racial tensions as well. In one scene it described how pleased she was with a photo she'd managed to take before leaving the city of a black male venomously glaring at a empty on-duty Taxi cab as it sped pass, noting to herself that racial pictures were popular right then and she'd probably be able to sell it. It goes into further detail about it when a black family moves into Stepford, though the citizens of Stepford are too serene to be 'bothered' by it. Over all everything is brought out in very subtle ways and you aren't beat over the head or preached to about anything. Even the climaxes are subdued, a gently rising that builds in plateaus towards the final thrust. Over all, in the words of Peter Straub, this was a deceptively 'easy' read with many underlying layers, wit, and commentary.
Wow. Just...wow. I'm amazed at how well this book was able to maintain it's atmosphere of creepyness and unease. I was on the edge of my seat, dying to know whether Joanna would realize what was going on, and if she did, would she be able to escape? The final pages of the book wrap up the story, without really providing any sort of explaination; I think leaving those details to the reader's imagination works in this case, and serves to make this a better, more chilling tale.