Summary
Yet [Elizabeth Abbott]'s unique contribution lies in her discussion of love and marriage. Writing after the myth of the Victorian "Angel in the House" and the postwar model of the obedient wife have been effectively challenged, she confronts an audience that would seek to restore love to its rightful place within marriage.
"Since time immemorial, even in the most pragmatically created of marriages, passionate love could stir," Abbott writes. "Yet when it did, that love was disparaged as unseemly, equated with lust, and believed to corrode good marriages."These accounts of "self-marriage," "private vows between two consenting partners ... considered sufficient to constitute marriage," are among the most interesting sections of the book.See the full content of this document
Extract
A Vivid Account of Role of Marriage
A History of Marriage
By Elizabeth AbbottPenguin Canada, 438 pages, $24TODAY, as always, marriage brings couples together in a union that is expected to last a lifetime....See the full content of this document
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