Due donne, amiche fin dall'infanzia, profondamente diverse fisicamente e nell'anima dividono una squallida e misera esistenza lavorando come cameriere. Sylvie è bella, cinica e calcolatrice e Marie, strabica, scialba, lamentosa, ne è succube. La prima vuole un futuro da signora e si trasferisce a Parigi in cerca di un uomo ricco lasciando l'amica al suo mediocre destino.
Ma a Parigi anni dopo si ritrovano e i ruoli si ribaltano, Marie svela tutto il suo animo torbido pronta a ghermire l'occasione per il proprio riscatto.
Un romanzo straordinario in cui Simenon con raffinata scrittura, indaga il lato livido e rancoroso dell'essere umano. Sylvie e Marie sono antitetiche e complementari, unite alla fine nell'amoralità. ( )

Not a mystery. Not a suspense. What is it? I'm not sure, except maybe a study of two women who make the wrong choice at every turn and end up miserable. Most depressing book I have read in a long time. I gave it two stars because in my rating system, that is a book I didn't like at all, but it was not poorly written and there may be someone else out there who would like it. ( )

Sylvie possède des seins magnifiques qui affolent les hommes, une nature gourmande et sensuelle alliée à une paresse invincible et, par-dessus tout, elle hait la pauvreté. Marie, son amie d'enfance, n'est qu'une fille qui louche, envieuse et sournoise, habitée par une âme d'esclave. Ensemble, elles ont fui le quartier misérable des remparts de Rochefort où elles sont nées. Sylvie est capable de tout pour réussir. Marie la méprise et l'adore, la jalouse et la hait. Mais elle ne peut pas se passer d'elle. La vie les sépare pourtant. Vingt ans plus tard, elles se retrouvent dans la foule des Champs-Ely¬sées qui fête la victoire. Sylvie est devenue la maîtresse d'un vieil homme qui s'apprête à mourir en lui laissant son hôtel de l'avenue Foch. Marie est libre, toujours aussi pauvre, et prête à jouer, comme autrefois, son rôle d'âme damnée.

One of Simenon's riveting explorations of female psychology, a study in contrasts between two women who are mutually dependent from their school days. Marie is ugly, of somewhat retarded intelligence, but her fixation on her friend gives her an uncanny insight into the other's nature, intentions, motivations. Sylvie, cold, vicious, ruthless, is also beautiful and compellingly attractive to men. Her desire to hurt extends to her faithful slave., Marie; for a number of years they lose sight of each other; Syvie becoming the adored mistress of a rich and elderly man. How and why Marie re-enters Sylvie's life and achieves a dominating role in their relationship is described with surgical precision by one of the world's greatest realistic writers. From book dustjacket. ( )