“When the bells began to sound the hour she let out the first scream.”

— Simone de Beauvoir

Last lines
All Men are Mortal (1946)
Context: In horror, in terror, she accepted the metamorphosis — gnat, foam, ant, until death. And it's only the beginning, she thought. She stood motionless, as if it were possible to play tricks with time, possible to stop it from following its course. But her hands stiffened against her quivering lips.
When the bells began to sound the hour she let out the first scream.

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Simone de Beauvoir152

French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, po… 1908–1986

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