Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

by Simone de Beauvoir

There was the red peril; there was the yellow peril: soon a new wave of barbarism was spreading from the four corners of the earth and from the lowest depths of society; revolution would precipitate the world into chaos. My father used to prophesy these calamities with a passionate vehemence that filled me with consternation; this future that he painted in such lurid colours was my future;