The idyllic village of Stepford, Connecticut is an affluent suburban town populated with successful, satisfied hubbies and their beautiful, dutiful wives. For photographer Joanna Eberhart, a recent arrival with her husband and two children, it all seems too perfect to be true–from the sweet, accommodating Welcome Wagon lady to all those cheerful, friendly faces in the supermarket checkout lines. But just beneath the town’s flawless surface, something is sordid and wrong–something abominable with roots in the local Men’s Association. And it may already be too late for Joanna to save herself from being devoured by Stepford’s hideous perfection.

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. First published in September 1972, The Stepford Wives was referred to by one reviewer as “an extraordinary feminist horror novel. Ira Levin powerfully dramatizes women’s suburban alienation and men’s resistance to feminist change.”

The novel was adapted into two feature films, both using the same title as the novel: the 1975 version, and the 2004 remake.