Literature about marriage and separating/ divorce

[dsage]

Can someone tell me literature discussing about social pressure on marriage (the society pushes people to marry someone) and separating/ divorce? I need to make an English paper about this issue. I prefer poem and short story (I don't have much time reading a novel). I will appreciate if you can tell the title and the author of the literary works.

[Nightshade]

Humm I know you said you didnt want a novel however it is a short one ( and Ill admit I didnt read it because I didnt like it ) but Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach as far as I read of it was concered sort of with that.

[Ashurbanipal]

I suppose you don't have time for Anna Karenina? Perhaps some sufferage-era shorts stories, The Birdcage, The Yellow Wallpaper? The only problem with all that stuff is that it always makes the woman out to be a tragic figure

[JBI]

Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin.

[Jozanny]

Henry James has a short story called "The Marriages"--one of his few I haven't read, about a daughter's attempt to keep her father from remarrying--though I must caution I don't know how close it is to your meme. I'd have to think about more contemporary pieces, though my mind assures me I know of some. I will take a look in my library by and by.

[bouquin]

It could be worth your while to go through D.H. Lawrence's England, My England.

[Niamh]

What Maise Knew by James has issues about Divorce.

[kelby_lake]

I'd second What Maisie Knew. Basically this girl's parents divorce, and each keeps her for 6th months before swapping to the other person.
Pride and Prejudice has a lot in it about marriage.

[Nightshade]

What every woman knows by barrie? although doesnt really involve divorce as such, just a rather differnt look at the ideals in marriage... which makes me think of an ideal husband by wilde.
Mary Marie by Elonar H porter and Jill O' latern Hill deal with divorce from a child perspective ( In the 1920s I think) .
I thought I had somthing in my copy of Yaffe's 1940 " an anthology of love and marraige humm acxtually I have somthing
Byrons Epigram on my wedding-day ( to penelope) ... hmmm

[Amylian]

Persuation by Jane Austin has lots and I mean lots of marriage/seperating thing.

[Cailin]

What Maise Knew by James has issues about Divorce.


I loved that book in college - I did an interesting comparative between it and The Secret Garden (of all things!)

[Niamh]

I loved that book in college - I did an interesting comparative between it and The Secret Garden (of all things!)

I couldnt finish it.......:sick:

[dsage]

Thanks guys. But I really want a short story. The paper is due next week, and I have to have at least 5 stories. I can't read 5 novels in a week. So, if you can tell me a short story, I'll be so glad.

[Cailin]

I couldnt finish it.......:sick:

Think Henry James is an acquired taste - go back to it at some point, it's worth persevering with

[Jozanny]

dsage: go to the library, use their periodical guide, and do some research. *Modern* short stories, from the 80's through today, are usually snapshots of something, instances, episodes. A good short story can give you inferences about relationship dynamics, but splits and separations usually require more nuanced tellings, so that tends toward the novel, or at least something longer than 4,000 words. I am more contemporary than many members here because I publish in small print run literary journals. I don't read everything in my copies, and won't pretend that I do--but you aren't going to get divorces and failed relationships in today's literary publications. I ran my head over everything I could think of, in Story, which has a nice one about disability sex I wish I might have written, and so on. It isn't there, because a short story, by its nature, has to be more episodic, like a snapshot.

You might find something in mid-20th century publications, from the 40's or 50's, but the internet doesn't excuse the need for you to do the legwork :) *The Marriages* btw, in Jamesian terms, is a short story, but in his case, about 16,000 words, since we are talking 19th century.

[kelby_lake]

guy de maupassant wrote loads of short stories. there's bound to be a marriage one

[Jozanny]

guy de maupassant wrote loads of short stories. there's bound to be a marriage one

I have read the entire Maupassant collection, more than once, and no, divorce is not a primary motif. Hypocrisy, adultery, even rape gets a highlight, but not divorce.

His novels rather play with the theme that most men with pretensions are like everyone else. Actually, his novel, Bel-Ami, does have a sordid, trumped up divorce in it, but it is a short novel, and the OP wants short stories.

[Pecksie]

There's a very good story by W. Somerset Maugham, "The Force of Circumstance", in which the young wife of a British civil servant joins her husband in Asia only to find out that he has lived with a native woman and had children by her. She then decides to separate. The story is set in the twenties, I guess, so there must have been important social issues (of respectability, etc.) at stake. It's very, very well written.

I know you don't have much time, but maybe you should read Edith Wharton's novella "The House of Mirth". It's quite short, and deals with the pressure society exerts on a penniless young woman to find a husband who can support her.

Hope this helped!

[PabloQ]

I know you don't have much time, but maybe you should read Edith Wharton's novella "The House of Mirth". It's quite short, and deals with the pressure society exerts on a penniless young woman to find a husband who can support her.

Hope this helped!

I don't have a short story, but A Modern Instance by William Dean Howells is about a marriage and it's ultimate end in divorce, which at the time is a disgrace. The couple live in Massachusetts and have to go to Indiana to get a legal separation. Other novels that fit the bill are The Portrait of a Lady, which doesn't end in divorce, but is the study of a marriage that should; The Age of Innocence - another marriage that should; and Sister Carrie, which treats marriage like used Kleenex. But sorry, no short stories come to mind. Marriage might be too complex and detailed a topic to fit the short story.

[Bitterfly]

Richard Ford's collection of short stories, A Multitude of Sins, focuses quite a lot on adultery. They're very easy to read.

[Mockingbird_z]

painted veil by S. Maugham - has something to dabout marriage tooo, especially in the beginning, deep thinking about whom to marry, reasons for / against marrying X.

[Pecksie]

And Greene's 'The End of the Affair'.

[kelby_lake]

I've mentioned What Maisie Knew, haven't I? That's a really good one to do.

[prendrelemick]

Fanny and Annie, a short story by DH lawrence is exactly what you're looking for.

[byquist]

Chekhov and Joyce Carol Oates' "The Lady with the Pet Dog," both great renditions.

[Dr. Hill]

Just peruse "The Canterbury Tales". A good percentage of them are about marriage and infidelity within.

[Karl Rommel]

Not short. More about what happens to the woman when the marriage falls apart, but worthy of a read nevertheless.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heart-Country-Fay-Weldon/dp/0099147718/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227298586&sr=1-9

[johann cruyff]

It may not fit your description perfectly, but I have to recommend Madame Bovary as well.

[Emil Miller]

There's a very good story by W. Somerset Maugham, "The Force of Circumstance", in which the young wife of a British civil servant joins her husband in Asia only to find out that he has lived with a native woman and had children by her. She then decides to separate. The story is set in the twenties, I guess, so there must have been important social issues (of respectability, etc.) at stake. It's very, very well written.

I know you don't have much time, but maybe you should read Edith Wharton's novella "The House of Mirth". It's quite short, and deals with the pressure society exerts on a penniless young woman to find a husband who can support her.

Hope this helped!

I second the "Force of Circumstance", like all of his writing, with the possible exception of "Up at the Villa", Maugham`s stories are very well written and he was, of course, at the centre of a famous divorce case himself.