false 919633 3 Katie Roiphe&#8217;s stimulating work has made her one of the most talked about cultural critics of her generation. Now this bracing young writer delves deeply into one of the most layered of subjects: marriage. Drawn in part from the private memoirs, personal correspondence, and long-forgotten journals of the British literary community from 1910 to the Second World War, here are seven &#8220;marriages à la mode&#8221;&#8212;each rising to the challenge of intimate relations in more or less creative ways. Jane Wells, the wife of H.G., remained his rock, despite his decade-long relationship with Rebecca West (among others). Katherine Mansfield had an irresponsible, childlike romance with her husband, John Middleton Murry, that collapsed under the strain of real-life problems. Vera Brittain and George Gordon Catlin spent years in a &#8220;semidetached&#8221; marriage (he in America, she in England). Vanessa Bell maintained a complicated harmony with the painter Duncan Grant, whom she loved, and her husband, Clive. And her sister Virginia Woolf, herself no stranger to marital particularities, sustained a brilliant running commentary on the most intimate details of those around her. <br><br>Every chapter revolves around a crisis that occurred in each of these marriages&#8212;as serious as life-threatening illness or as seemingly innocuous as a slightly tipsy dinner table conversation&#8212;and how it was resolved&#8230;or not resolved. In these portraits, Roiphe brilliantly evokes what are, as she says, &#8220;the fluctuations and shifts in attraction, the mysteries of lasting affection, the endurance and changes in love, and the role of friendship in marriage.&#8221; The deeper mysteries at stake in all relationships. 2517659 2007 Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Portraits of Married Life in London Literary Circles 1910-1939 total:144|5:24|4:55|3:50|2:12|1:3| 144 517 316 61 0 3 false false Tue Dec 25 11:38:20 -0800 2007 Tue Dec 25 11:46:59 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 2 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 14 13:09:10 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 19 08:42:55 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Jun 26 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 25 08:11:15 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 30 11:39:43 -0700 2008 Uncommon Arrangements seems a simplistic title at first, until the reader begins to realize how very complicated and uncommon the subjects are. Though the era she focuses on overlaps with WWI, some of the unions author Katie Roiphe details may seem shocking or odd, even to modern readers. There is...more...]]> 1 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 18 18:22:05 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 18 18:31:17 -0800 2008
"I can't rate this book, in good conscience, because I couldn't finish it. Terrible drivel. The problem isn't that Roiphe relies almost exclusively on already published material, nor that h...more...]]> 2 1 false false Sat Nov 17 19:24:05 -0800 2007 Fri Oct 12 18:14:48 -0700 2007 Sat Nov 17 06:06:40 -0800 2007 Lives of the Muses and the second Claudia Roth Pierpont's Passionate Minds. In comparrison to those books this one seems unambitious, unimportant, and unins...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Jan 27 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 30 22:07:17 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 30 22:48:13 -0800 2009 1
But even after making allowances for that, I'm still disappointed in this book. As the title explains, it examines seven different marr...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Apr 21 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 13 09:12:59 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 21 11:13:39 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Tue Mar 31 10:48:55 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 31 10:49:04 -0700 2009
Have you ever seen those mind-map-like charts that begin with one celebrity and radiate / branch out to show who has had (ahem) relationships with whom? That's this book.

In no particular order, these are some of the linked literati: H.G. Wells, Rebecca West, Elizabeth Von...more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 10:01:56 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 10:01:56 -0800 2009 What is it that makes intimate portraits of failed relationships so fascinating? Katie Roiphe doesn't romanticize or make excuses for her complex subjects and their entanglements but treats them with wit, warmth, and respect. Despite a few historical inaccuracies and questionable assumptions, critic...

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The whole premise of each of these relati...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Nov 26 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 14 00:48:43 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 04 22:22:45 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jun 12 10:17:50 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 12 10:30:08 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 true false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 23 13:57:03 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 28 17:00:24 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Jun 07 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 02 06:43:59 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 07 17:10:11 -0700 2008
The glimpses into the seven marriages between pre-World War II literary figures (including H.G. Wells, Katherine Mansfield, and Vera Brittain) seem, at times, too intimate (...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 24 14:35:34 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 24 14:51:57 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Sep 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 07:35:16 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 18 06:48:20 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Jan 24 07:22:08 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 24 07:23:01 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false true Sun Feb 10 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 17 12:07:37 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 17 12:18:55 -0800 2008
It was amazing the lengths that people will go to to hold on to those they love within "arrangements" that were made in the name of "moderinism". These were a testament to the...more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Nov 10 13:50:21 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 13:52:15 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 16 05:11:06 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 16 05:15:19 -0700 2007 more...]]>