Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber

[PeterL]

Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber may be the best horror novel ever. In some ways it is a traditional witch story, but it also suggests some ways that men and women can be regarded as different. A cultural anthropologist teaching at a small private college discovers that his wife has used some of the folk magic that he came across in primitive areas in the hope of improving their lives. He convinces her to destroy all of the charms, and their life starts to unravel. Other faculty wives are using their charms to help their husbands, and we eventually learn that all women use magic to make their lives better for them. The other faculty wives turn their arts on the professor and his wife, and steal the wife's soul and try to drown her. Her soulless directions led the husband to keep her from being drowned, and they steal her soul back. Not only is the plot fascinating, but the characters are well done, and we readers learn something of what really goes on in the minds of women.

I recently gave a copy of this to a friend who was recently appointed to the faculty of a small college, so that he might be better prepared.