An underrated book
“No man has ever loved a woman and not imagined her in the arms of someone else. I repeat the sentence not only for the pleasure it gives me… I repeat it as a categorical, unwavering truth, though I fully expect it to be contradicted. You will sooner get a man to give away his money than admit he longs to give away his wife. (Or better still - for we are dealing, if only we’d come clean about it, in nothing but degrees of good - to have his wife give away herself.) Of course imagining is not the same as longing; what you see in your mind’s distempered eye you might not welcome in your heart. But then again you might. What else is imagination for if not to lure the heart away from safety? Here’s a simple test for husbands: Do I fear another man is ducking my wife or do I hope another man is fucking my wife? And of the two, which do I prefer? Take as much time as you need to think about it. Close your eyes. Do a little picturing of the scene. You are filled with dread, o...