Hello Justy
Thanks for asking a really interesting question. Even though the scope
of the question is rather daunting, I've enjoyed planning the answer
and doing the research. I've gathered together some thoughts and you
may well go on to benefit from other peoples' ideas contributed via
the comments section. I tried to stick fairly closely to your request
for 'fiction about unfaithful spouses', and cut out one or two ideas
on the grounds that a particular novel was about other things even
more. I couldn't resist mentioning "Jane Eyre" below but does it
really count as a novel 'about an unfaithful spouse'?
You asked for 'reminders' and I started by trying to write summaries
for you, then decided that would take so long you'd probably rather
have a slightly longer list of suggestions with references to
summaries available on the web. This makes the answer look boring,
even though it's an interesting topic! But my aim was to give you some
helpful ideas and jog your memory about books you've read in the past.
I've included the novels you mention with links to plot descriptions -
I couldn't leave out "Anna Karenina".
Please let me know if you have trouble with any of the links. You
should be able to click your way from answer to website and back again
without difficulty.
Some of the books I mention are available to read on the net, for
instance via Project Gutenberg:
http://promo.net/pg/
So....my list starts with some of the most obvious. (Please feel free
to disagree; that's the one of the pleasures of literary studies and
discussions.):
TOP CHOICES
"Madame Bovary" Gustave Flaubert
http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdocs/webdescrips/flaubert191-des-.html
"Anna Karenina" Leo Tolstoy
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/anna/summary.html
"The Scarlet Letter" Nathaniel Hawthorne
http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/thescarletletter/shortsumm.html
Infidelity and 'what is infidelity?' was a big theme for Thomas Hardy.
For instance these two:
"The Woodlanders" Hardy
http://www.gettysburg.edu/academics/english/hardy/contexts/gender/marriage_laws.html
"Jude the Obscure" Hardy
http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/26/57/frameset.html
"Lady Chatterley's Lover" D.H.Lawrence
http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/32/68/frameset.html
FRENCH NOVELS (AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH)
At one time 'French novel' was a phrase equivalent to 'novel of
adultery' (see reference below)
"Julie, or the New Heloise" Jean-Jacques Rousseau
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0874518253/qid=1032618573/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-6663242-8651356?v=glance&s=books
"La Princesse de Cleves" Madame de Lafayette
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/0140445870/customer-reviews/qid=1032618842/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-6663242-8651356
"Les Liaisons Dangereuses" Laclos
http://www.123student.com/english/329.shtml
"Une Femme de Trente Ans" Honore de Balzac
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Square/3472/womanofthirty.html
Novels by Colette, including:
"Cheri" Colette
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/colette.htm
AMERICAN NOVELS
"The Golden Bowl" Henry James
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=52MXM8XAK8&isbn=081256510X
"Gertrude and Claudius" John Updike
http://www.city.mississauga.on.ca/library/reviews_books/2001/Gertrude_Claudius.htm.
"War Between the Tates" Alison Lurie
http://www.jp41.dial.pipex.com/R284.HTML
I haven't found much on this one - hope you've still got a copy handy:
"Such Good Friends" Lois Gould
People might argue about whether this one counts as 'literature':
"The Bridges of Madison County" Robert James Waller
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446364495/qid=1032626803/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_2/102-6663242-8651356
BRITISH NOVELS
"Life Force" Fay Weldon
http://redmood.com/weldon/lifeforce.html
"The End of the Affair" Graham Greene
http://www.epinions.com/book-review-7C25-D8EA5C-39C912A7-prod1
"Jane Eyre" Charlotte Bronte
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/janeeyre/summary.html
OTHER NOVELS IN ENGLISH
"The Unbearable Lightness of Being" Milan Kundera
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides/unbearable_lightness_of_being.asp
"A Lost Paradise" Junichi Watanabe
http://www.persimmon-mag.com/spring2001/bre_sp2001_3.htm.
OTHER LITERATURE
You said 'fiction' and gave two novels as examples but in case you
want to broaden out into earlier literature, how about Shakespeare?
"Othello" seems very relevant to the theme even though the infidelity
was imagined. Then there's Restoration comedy, Lancelot and
Guinevere, Tristan and Iseult...........
You'll find more suggestions on this library page which I found when
looking for information on "Such Good Friends":
http://www.hpl.ca/guides/BIBLIO/Betrayal.shtml
Good luck with your researches. If anything in this answer's unclear,
please feel free to ask for clarification.
And now it's time to throw this open to comments.........
Regards - Leli
PS Here's what a review of Barbara Leckie's book, "Culture and
Adultery" has to say:
".........though there were many French novels about adultery (indeed,
the term `French novel' came to mean a novel of adultery), French
newspapers did not print proceedings of divorce cases, and while it
was not uncommon for French novels to describe adultery from the point
of view of the betrayer (Emma Bovary being the most notable example),
English novelists, like English journalists, told such stories from
the perspective of the betrayed." See:
http://www.wesleyan.edu/wesmaps/course0102/russ254s.htm
Search notes:
I typed authors and titles into Google. I also tried this search
which might lead you to more ideas:
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=novel++infidelity+OR+adultery+OR+unfaithful&btnG=Google+Search |
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