Levin was a hot commodity in the 1960s and 1970s, cranking out horror potboilers like Rosemary's Baby, The Boys from Brazil, and this 1972 title, all of which share the common theme that people aren't always who or what they seem. This slim volume finds protagonist Joanna and husband Walter and kids leaving the wicked city for the bucolic town of Stepford. Despite its ideal fa ade, the sleepy little storybook town actually is more wicked. Joanna soon notices that her female neighbors are all body and no brains and seemingly exist only to do housework while their husbands gather nightly at a mysterious men's club. Even worse, it appears that the women who moved there just before her suddenly begin morphing into hausfraus built like swimsuit modelsDand she's next! It's hard to tell if this is a stab at the feminist movement or simply a male fantasy, but it's a fun read and will keep you turning the pages. Note also that a new feature film based on this story is in the works.
The Stepford Wives
Narrated by January LaVoy, Grover Gardner
Ira LevinUnabridged — 3 hours, 58 minutes
The Stepford Wives
Narrated by January LaVoy, Grover Gardner
Ira LevinUnabridged — 3 hours, 58 minutes
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Overview
Ira Levin's dark suburban tale remains as compelling-and frighteningly relevant-as ever. Psychological suspense mixes with elements of science fiction to create an extraordinary thriller tinged with Levin's sly, satirical wit.
Few novels have enshrined themselves in the collective consciousness to the degree The Stepford Wives has. Levin's sardonic critique has been spun off into countless film and television adaptations, from 1975's original Katharine Ross filming to 2004's Nicole Kidman offering-and its influence can be felt in later works from The Handmaid's Tale to Get Out. Its title alone has become part of our common lexicon.
Joanna Eberhart is a creative, self-possessed wife and mother, newly arrived in seemingly idyllic Stepford, Connecticut. But as she and her family begin settling in, she's jarred by the unaccountable sameness of the local wives: all flawlessly attractive, with perfectly maintained homes-and little seeming interest in anything else. As curiosity turns to concern, Joanna finds herself unraveling a web of malice that threatens her very existence.
Prepare to be captivated, unnerved, and utterly engrossed by Ira Levin's dark and unforgettable modern classic, The Stepford Wives.
This edition includes an afterword by Peter Straub.
Editorial Reviews
[Ira Levin] is the Swiss watchmaker of the suspense novel.” — Stephen King
“An efficient German motorcar of a book—masterful, ridiculously well crafted, and, like the ladies of Stepford themselves, flawless.” — Esquire
“Chilling...Entertaining...Read it.” — Austin American-Statesman
[Ira Levin] is the Swiss watchmaker of the suspense novel.”
Chilling…Entertaining…Read it.”
Levin…helped establish, and legitimize, the horror thriller.”
The Stepford Wives has one of the most enduring premises of twentieth-century American fiction.”
Stepford Wives depicted the backlash against feminism twenty years before Susan Faludi wrote Backlash.”
The Stepford Wives…helped popularize the subgenre of feminist horror.”
A wicked, deadpan humor lies at the heart of this tableau…As a novel that can be devoured nearly in one gulp, its very efficiency deflects attention from the controlled composure of its prose and the jewel-like perfection of its structure.”
Masterful, ridiculously well crafted…flawless.”
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940159412317 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 05/07/2024 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Sales rank: | 1,228,235 |
Read an Excerpt
The Stepford Wives
Chapter One
The Welcome Wagon lady, sixty if she was a day but working at youth and vivacity (ginger hair, red lips, a sunshine-yellow dress), twinkled her eyes and teeth at Joanna and said, "You're really going to like it here! It's a nice town with nice people! You couldn't have made a better choice!" Her brown leather shoulderbag was enormous, old and scuffed; from it she dealt Joanna packets of powdered breakfast drink and soup mix, a toy-size box of non-polluting detergent, a booklet of discount slips good at twenty-two local shops, two cakes of soap, a folder of deodorant pads --
"Enough, enough," Joanna said, standing in the doorway with both hands full. "Hold. Halt. Thank you."
The Welcome Wagon lady put a vial of cologne on top of the other things, and then searched in her bag -- "No, really," Joanna said -- and brought out pink-framed eyeglasses and a small embroidered notebook. "I do the 'Notes on Newcomers,'" she said, smiling and putting on the glasses. "For the Chronicle." She dug at the bag's bottom and came up with a pen, clicking its top with a red-nailed thumb.
Joanna told her where she and Walter had moved from; what Walter did and with which firm; Pete's and Kim's names and ages; what she had done before they were born; and which colleges she and Walter had gone to. She shifted impatiently as she spoke, standing there at the front door with both hands full and Pete and Kim out of earshot.
"Do you have any hobbies or special interests?"
She was about to say a time-saving no, but hesitated: a full answer, printed in the local paper, might serve as a signpost to women like herself, potential friends. The women she had met in the past few days, the ones in the nearby houses, were pleasant and helpful enough, but they seemed completely absorbed in their household duties. Maybe when she got to know them better she would find they had farther-reaching thoughts and concerns, yet it might be wise to put up that signpost. So, "Yes, several," she said. "I play tennis whenever I get the chance, and I'm a semi-professional photographer -- "
"Oh?" the Welcome Wagon lady said, writing.
Joanna smiled. "That means an agency handles three of my pictures," she said. "And I'm interested in politics and in the Women's Liberation movement. Very much so in that. And so is my husband."
"He is?" The Welcome Wagon lady looked at her.
"Yes," Joanna said. "Lots of men are." She didn't go into the benefits-for-both-sexes explanation; instead she leaned her head back into the entrance hall and listened: a TV audience laughed in the family room, and Pete and Kim argued but below intervention level. She smiled at the Welcome Wagon lady "He's interested in boating and football too," she said, "and he collects Early American legal documents." Walter's half of the signpost.
The Welcome Wagon lady wrote, and closed her notebook, clicked her pen. "That's just fine, Mrs. Eberhart," she said, smiling and taking her glasses off. "I know you're going to love it here," she said, "and I want to wish you a sincere and hearty 'Welcome to Stepford.' If there's any information I can give you about local shops and services, please feel free to call me; the number's right there on the front of the discount book."
"Thank you, I will," Joanna said. "And thanks for all this."
"Try them, they're good products!" the Welcome Wagon lady said. She turned away "Good-by now!"
Joanna said good-by to her and watched her go down the curving walk toward her battered red Volkswagen. Dogs suddenly filled its windows, a black and brown excitement of spaniels, jumping and barking, paws pressing glass. Moving whiteness beyond the Volkswagen caught Joanna's eye: across the sapling-lined street, in one of the Clay brooks' upstairs windows, whiteness moved again, leaving one pane and filling the next; the window was being washed. Joanna smiled, in case Donna Claybrook was looking at her. The whiteness moved to a lower pane, and then to the pane beside it.
With a surprising roar the Volkswagen lunged from the curb, and Joanna backed into the entrance hall and hipped the door closed.
Pete and Kim were arguing louder. "B.M.! Diarrhea!" "Ow! Stop it!" "Cut it out!" Joanna called, dumping the double handful of samples onto the kitchen table.
"She's kicking me!" Pete shouted, and Kim shouted, "I'm not! You diarrhea!"
"Now stop it," Joanna said, going to the port and looking through. Pete lay on the floor too close to the TV set, and Kim stood beside him, red-faced, keeping from kicking him. Both were still in their pajamas. "She kicked me twice," Pete said, and Kim shouted, "You changed the channel! He changed the channel!" "I did not!" "I was watching Felix the Cat!"
"Quiet!" Joanna commanded. "Absolute silence! Utter -- complete-total-silence."
They looked at her, Kim with Walter's wide blue eyes, Pete with her own grave dark ones. "Race 'em to a flying finish!" the TV set cried. "No electricity!"
"A, you're too close to the set," Joanna said. "B, turn it off; and C, get dressed, both of you. That green stuff outside is grass, and the yellow stuff coming down on it is sunshine." Pete scrambled to his feet and powed the TVs control panel, blanking its screen to a dying dot of light. Kim began crying.
Joanna groaned and went around into the family room.
Crouching, she hugged Kim to her shoulder and rubbed her pajamaed back, kissed her silk-soft ringlets. "Ah, come on now," she said. "Don't you want to play with that nice Allison again? Maybe you'll see another chipmunk."
Pete came over and lifted a strand of her hair. She looked up at him and said, "Don't change channels on her."
"Oh, all right," he said, winding a finger in the dark strand.
"And don't kick," she told Kim. She rubbed her back and tried to get kisses in at her squirming-away cheek.
The Stepford Wives. Copyright © by Ira Levin. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.Videos
