Posing as an eclectic philosopher, Balzac dissects marriage in a series of numbered meditations: statistics of the honest woman, the husband’s defences against a wife’s lovers, the stages of conjugal war and the eventual peace. This volume of The Human Comedy is centred on The Physiology of Marriage, a witty, cynical and often outrageous book first published in 1829.
Balzac at his most mischievous, with views on women that are very much those of his time. Download the free EPUB.