Petty Troubles of Married Life, Complete

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Honoré de Balzac. Petty Troubles of Married Life, Complete

PART FIRST

PREFACE

THE UNKINDEST CUT OF ALL

REVELATIONS

AXIOMS

THE ATTENTIONS OF A WIFE

SMALL VEXATIONS

THE ULTIMATUM

WOMEN’S LOGIC

THE JESUITISM OF WOMEN

MEMORIES AND REGRETS

OBSERVATIONS

THE MATRIMONIAL GADFLY

HARD LABOR

FORCED SMILES

NOSOGRAPHY OF THE VILLA

TROUBLE WITHIN TROUBLE

A HOUSEHOLD REVOLUTION

THE ART OF BEING A VICTIM

THE FRENCH CAMPAIGN

A SOLO ON THE HEARSE

PART SECOND

PREFACE

HUSBANDS DURING THE SECOND MONTH

DISAPPOINTED AMBITION

THE PANGS OF INNOCENCE

THE UNIVERSAL AMADIS

WITHOUT AN OCCUPATION

INDISCRETIONS

BRUTAL DISCLOSURES

A TRUCE

USELESS CARE

SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE

THE DOMESTIC TYRANT

THE AVOWAL

HUMILIATIONS

THE LAST QUARREL

A SIGNAL FAILURE

THE CHESTNUTS IN THE FIRE

ULTIMA RATIO

COMMENTARY. IN WHICH IS EXPLAINED LA FELICITA OF FINALES

Отрывок из книги

Is it a petty or a profound trouble? I knew not; it is profound for your sons-in-law or daughters-in-law, but exceedingly petty for you.

“Petty! You must be joking; why, a child costs terribly dear!” exclaims a ten-times-too-happy husband, at the baptism of his eleventh, called the little last newcomer, – a phrase with which women beguile their families.

.....

Your wife, now the mother-in-law of Adolphe, subjects herself to the pressure of tight corsets. When her daughter laughs, she weeps; when Caroline wishes her happiness public, she tries to conceal hers. After dinner, the discerning eye of the co-mother-in-law divines the work of darkness.

Your wife also is an expectant mother! The news spreads like lightning, and your oldest college friend says to you laughingly: “Ah! so you are trying to increase the population again!”

.....