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311 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1983
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.—Elizabeth Barrett Browning
This book is damn near perfection.
1. In the prologue, Phyllis Rose has some astoundingly insightful and clear-eyed things to say about marriage. I will definitely be revisiting this piece of writing. She talks about shifting power dynamics (if you are one of those people who finds talking about power dynamics in relationships "unromantic," you might not want to risk the damage this will do to your naive, oppression-enabling bubble); about the interplay between engaging in intellectual, social, sexual, and care-taking ways; and about what does and does not seem to make for "happy" marriages. Wow.
2. You get to peer under the façades of five very different marriages, all resplendent with emotional drama. Rose brilliantly crafts, from largely firsthand sources, unfolding narratives of courtship and partnership (and sometimes separation), periodically offering wry and trenchant analysis. Gossipy and smart and literarily crafted? Yes, yes, yes.
3. These aren't just any marriages Rose is examining—they involve famous writers and thinkers, including George Eliot, Charles Dickens, John Ruskin, John Stuart Mill, and Thomas Carlyle, many of whom meaningfully interacted with one another, so you also get a bite-sized intellectual and literary history of the Victorian era. Score!
Pardon me while I go track down everything Phyllis Rose ever wrote. I knew her from The Year of Reading Proust, which I also adored.