Modern marriage and how to bear it

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Maud Churton Braby. Modern marriage and how to bear it

Modern marriage and how to bear it

Table of Contents

PART I. SIGNS OF UNREST

MODERN MARRIAGE

I. THE MUTUAL DISSATISFACTION OF. THE SEXES

II. WHY MEN DON’T MARRY

III. WHY WOMEN DON’T MARRY

IV. THE TRAGEDY OF THE UNDESIRED

PART II. CAUSES OF FAILURE

I. THE VARIOUS KINDS OF MARRIAGE

II. WHY WE FALL OUT: DIVERS DISCORDS

III. THE AGE TO MARRY

IV. WILD OATS FOR WIVES

V. A PLEA FOR THE WISER TRAINING OF GIRLS

VI ‘KEEPING ONLY TO HER’: THE CRUX OF MATRIMONY

PART III. SUGGESTED ALTERNATIVES

I. LEASEHOLD MARRIAGE À LA MEREDITH

II. LEASEHOLD MARRIAGE IN PRACTICE. A DIALOGUE IN 1999

III. THE FIASCO OF FREE LOVE

IV. POLYGAMY AT THE POLITE DINNER-TABLE

V. IS LEGALISED POLYANDRY THE SOLUTION?

VI. A WORD FOR DUOGAMY

VII. THE ADVANTAGES OF THE PRELIMINARY. CANTER

PART IV. CHILDREN—THE CUL-DE-SAC OF ALL REFORMS

I. TO BEGET OR NOT TO BEGET—THE QUESTION. OF THE DAY

II. THE PROS AND CONS OF THE LIMITED. FAMILY

III. PARENTHOOD: THE HIGHEST DESTINY

PART V. HOW TO BE HAPPY THOUGH MARRIED

I. A FEW SUGGESTIONS FOR REFORM

II. SOME PRACTICAL ADVICE TO HUSBANDS AND WIVES

THE END

Book Cover

Отрывок из книги

Maud Churton Braby

Published by Good Press, 2021

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‘Why women don’t marry? But they do—whenever they can!’ the intelligent reader will naturally exclaim. Not ‘whenever they get the chance,’ mark you; no intelligent reader would make this mistake, though it is a common enough error among the non-comprehending. Most spinsters over thirty must have winced at one time or another at the would-be genial rallying of some elderly man relative: ‘What! you not married yet? Well, well, I wonder what all the young men are thinking of.’ I write some man advisedly, for no woman, however cattishly inclined, however desirous of planting arrows in a rival’s breast, would utter this peculiarly deadly form of insult, which, strangely enough, is always intended as a high compliment by the masculine blunderer. The fact that the unfortunate spinster thus assailed may have had a dozen offers, and yet, for reasons of her own, prefer to remain single, seems entirely beyond their range of comprehension.

But the main reason why women don’t marry is obviously because men don’t ask them. Most women will accept when a sufficiently pleasing man offers them a sufficiently congenial life. If the offers they receive fall below a certain standard, then they prefer to remain single, wistfully hoping, no doubt, that the right man may come along before it is too late. The preservation of the imaginative faculty in women, to which I have previously alluded, doubtless accounts for many spinsters. It must also be remembered that the more educated women become, the less likely they are to marry for marrying’s sake as their grandmothers did.

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