"Coupled or uncoupled, none of us lives outside the cultural and psychological influence of marriage. But why has this ancient and highly contested practice remained relevant for so many? Is it an act of love, a leap of faith, a holy bond, a contractual commitment, a bid for security, a framework for family, a hedge against loneliness? Or could it conceal something a bit more radical? Drawing on philosophy, film, literature, psychoanalysis, and music, Baum considers the understudied idea and practice of marriage: as organizing principle, as creation, as conversation, as afterlife-and as a cover story for power and its abuses. What are we really talking about when we talk about marriage? And what are we really doing when we say "I do"? Entertaining, illuminating, candid and consoling, On Marriage critiques and celebrates the many contradictions of matrimony and its profound effects on us all"--

Nearly everywhere and at all times, marriage has enjoyed a privileged status as the primary social unit—the essential bond that created alliances between families and a bridge between the sexes. In joining a man and woman, marriage attempted to hold men to collective social standards, including responsibility for the women they impregnated and the children they fathered, while also stringently hedging in women’s sexuality. In short, marriage has always demanded that both men and women sacrifice a considerable measure of individual freedom. In marriage, “I” becomes “we,” and “we” frequently extends beyond the couple to extended family, clan, and society. For these reasons, both political and religious authorities typically have taken great care to present marriage as an institution to which individual interests must be subordinated. At the time of her death in January 2007, the celebrated historian Elizabeth Fox-Genovese was worried that these attitudes were in the process of being reversed. In this book, which she was in the midst of preparing for publication at the time of her passing, she argues that marriage is disintegrating under the rising demands that it serve not the good of the whole but the desires of the individual. A union that at one point was used to limit individual “rights” is now claimed as one right among many. The sexual liberation movements of the last forty years have seriously undermined marriage, argues Fox-Genovese, so much so that the institution seems to face the threat of extinction. Even so, she writes, “Marriage for love—the promise of an enduring and engulfing bond between a man and a woman—is a dream that refuses to die. . . . It still promises that we will finally be loved as we long to be loved.” That dream is the ultimate theme of this book, a fitting coda to Elizabeth Fox-Genovese’s distinguished career.

In all three Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, marriage is part of God's plan for humanity, as illustrated in the Hebrew Scriptures, the New Testament, and the Koran as well as the religious literature of these three traditions. It is viewed as a sacred bond as well as a means to personal fulfilment. It is more than a legal contract, rather an institution with cosmic significance, legitimized through divine authority. In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the purpose of marriage is to build a home, create a family and thereby perpetuate society. Yet, despite the similarity of perception in the great monotheistic faiths, there are important differences. In this book three scholars outline sex law, betrothal and marriage, family life and the understanding of divorce in these traditions and discuss the differences between them in a student-friendly and accessible way. -- Publisher

"An insightful and eloquent look at how love shapes our lives and our culture."--P. [2] of dust jacket.

"Peter Godwin's mother is dying. Born in England, and having spent most of her adult life as a doctor in Zimbabwe, she now lies on a hospital bed in the partitioned living room of his sister's London home. Peter has spent his life missing his Zimbabwean childhood, a longing that does not diminish as he reflects on his time as a journalist on the frontlines of combat around the world, or life in New York with his English wife and transatlantic children. In his mother's final months, he must come to terms with everything his family was and wasn't: the secrets they kept from one another, the stoicism that sometimes threatened to destroy them, and the beauty of the wildly different places they called home. With generations of history behind him, Godwin lyrically brings us into the spaces which make us question and suffer, shows us how we can heal our own scars, and celebrate the lives we have among family and friends" -- Publisher's description.

A CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of 2010 For many women around the world, their greatest risk of HIV infection comes from having sex with the very person with whom they are supposed to have sex: their spouse. The Secret situates marital HIV risk within a broader exploration of marital and extramarital sexuality in five diverse settings: Mexico, Nigeria, Uganda, Vietnam, and Papua New Guinea. In these settings, the authors write, men's extramarital sex is an officially secret but actually widespread (and widely acknowledged) social practice, rather than something men do because their bodies demand it and women can't stop them. Drawing on research conducted as part of an innovative comparative ethnographic study, and modeling a novel approach to collaborative anthropological scholarship, the authors show men's extramarital sex to be a fundamental aspect of gendered social organization. Through theoretically sophisticated yet lucid writing and vivid ethnographic description, drawing on rich data from the marital case studies conducted by research teams in each country, they trace how extramarital opportunity structures, sexual geographies, and concerns about social risk facilitate men's participation in extramarital sex. Also documented throughout is the collision between traditional ways and the new practices of romantic companionate marriage.

Tzippy Goldman's mother has been planning her wedding since before she was born. Her four younger sisters want her to marry the fairy tale Jewish prince of their mother's stories. But Tzippy, approaching spinsterhood at the age of twenty-two, has other ideas. She is hungry for experience and longs to escape the suffocating expectations of religious stricture and romantic obligation. But when she falls in love with Bryan Miller she surprises everyone. Bryan comes from a different kind of family. Like Orthodox Jews anywhere in the world, they spend Saturdays in synagogue, and the rest of the week like suburbanites everywhere. But to Bryan, this middle road looks more and more like hypocrisy. He longs for conviction, for the relief of absolutes. To his parents' bewilderment, Bryan decides to embrace a very different kind of lifestyle, swapping his beloved Yankees cap for something else entirely. In the courtship and marriage of Bryan and Tzippy, Tova Mirvis illuminates an insular world, where ancient and modern collide in a warm and hilarious novel about two very different families brought together by the marriage of their children.

Felix is a happy man. He runs a bookshop in London, and his wife, Marisa, is unfaithful to him. All husbands, Felix maintains, secretly want their wives to be unfaithful. After an event on their honeymoon in Florida, Felix went from dreading the thought of someone else's hands on the woman he loves to thinking about nothing else.

Mixed-faith marriages are becoming more and more common in Britain. The Church of England has even devised special regulations to provide guidance to ministers in conducting the ceremonies. This book caters for those planning or involved in counselling members of mixed marriages.

Selected as one of Oprah.com s 20 Tantalizing Beach Reads Celebrated essayist Phillip Lopate proves himself a master of the short novel form in this inspired pairing of novellas portraying two less-than-perfect unions.The Stoic's Marriage chronicles the life of newlyweds Gordon and Rita. Well-off, idle Gordon, a lifelong student of philosophy who has always had "a stunted capacity for happiness," first meets the enchanting Rita when she comes to his home as a nurse's aid sent to care for his dying mother. The attraction is instant and a marriage proposal ensues. Gordon turns to his diary to record his uxoriousness and to expound on the merits of Stoicism, the philosophy he's adopted as his "substitute religion." When Rita's cousin from the Philippines arrives one Christmas, setting in motion an outrageous and hilarious sequence of events, both Gordon's stoicism and marriage vows are put to the test. Eleanor, or, The Second Marriage recounts one seemingly golden weekend in the lives of Eleanor and Frank, whose Brooklyn townhouse is a gathering place for their circle of cultured, cosmopolitan friends.It is Saturday morning, and Frank and Eleanor are planning the dinner they will host to celebrate the visit of a famous actor friend. These preparations are interrupted by the arrival of Frank's son, a young man deeply troubled by his own aimlessness. Other guests arrive, and in the midst of great conviviality, simmering tensions erupt into raucous emotional dramas. Elegant, concise, and comically devastating, Two Marriages illuminates the ways in which love is inseparable from deceit."

When should a girl have sex-and with whom? Should you wait until you are married, or is it OK to have sex with your boyfriend if you love him? Or is it OK to have sex with someone you just met? There used to be clear rules about sex, but not anymore. Should a girl just do what she wants? Do what her friends do? Do what people in the movies do? Is there no real right or wrong about sex? The only people who claim to have clear answers are likely to be religious. But what if you're not religious? Is there no way to work out what's right?This book is written for people who may not be religious but who want answers. The insights in this book come from a deep study of human nature and human psychology. These insights do point to rules and guidelines-rules that can help you avoid heartache and lead you to happiness.It turns out that there is wisdom in the traditional view of when to have sex, but the traditional view was nothing but rules: "Do this! Don't do that!" Rules without explanations mean nothing.After you read this book you can follow those rules or not, but you will at least know where they come from.Sex is powerful, and can bring great joy, but it can crush you and break your heart. This is a book of advice on how to find the joy and avoid a broken heart. It is only 90 pages long, but your happiness may depend on whether you read it or not. About the Author:Samuel Taylor was part of the "sexual revolution" of the 1960s. He experienced the excitement but also suffered the dangers of what amounted to a complete rewriting of the rules about sex. He is also a keen student of psychology and human behavior. This book is based on the advice he gives his daughters, whom he loves more than anything else on earth.

Despite current concerns for “family values” and the dissolution of marriages, Amy A. and Leon R. Kass see very little attention being paid to what makes for marital success. They argue there are no longer socially prescribed forms of conduct that help guide young men and women in the direction of matrimony; the very concepts of “wooing” and “courting” seem archaic. Yet they see major discontent with the present situation and detect among their students certain longings―for friendship, for wholeness, for a life that is serious and deep, and for associations that are trustworthy and lasting―longings they do not realize could be largely satisfied by marrying well. Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar: Courting and Marrying is an anthology of source readings offered as a response to the contemporary cultural silence surrounding love that leads to marriage. It addresses important questions that emerge not from theory, but from practice: Why marry? Is this love? How can I find and win the right one to marry? What about sex? Why a wedding and the promises of marriage? What can married life be like? Using readings taken mainly from classic texts of Homer, Herodotus, Plato, Aquinas, Erasmus, Shakespeare, Rousseau, Austen, Tolstoy, C.S. Lewis, Miss Manners, and many others, this collection challenges our unexamined opinions, expands our sympathies, elevates our gaze. It offers a higher kind of sex education, one that prepares hearts and minds for romance leading to lasting marriage, and introduces us to possibilities open to human beings in everyday life that may be undreamt of in our current philosophizing. This unapologetically pro-marriage anthology is intended to help young people of marriageable age and their parents think about the meaning, purpose, and virtues of marriage and, especially, about finding the right person with whom to make a life.

Eve a nervous young actress from a powerful theatrical dynasty has found herself married to an international expert on anxiety called Jim. Could it work? Should it work? Across town, tabloid journalist Rebecca Melville is burning all her bridges while her devoted sister Beatrice, a therapist, tries her hardest not to intervene. How far can Eve and Rebecca go without losing the admiration of the people they love? From the West End stage to the depths of the gutter press via Chicago, counselling and Checkhov, this funny and heartbreaking story asks: do we get what we deserve in life? Must the show always go on?

Solotaroff was one of the notable intellectuals of his generation, the founder of the New American Review, editor and friend of Philip Roth, and editor-in-chief at HarperCollins. Solotaroff reveals himself here as a thinking man with a big heart and gaping wounds of love that are not disconnected from the contributions he has made to American culture throughout his career. Solotaroff turns back to the earliest pages of his romance with Lynn, remembering his first sighting of her emerging from the water as if from a dream. Yet the image, as he penetrates the intervening layers of sorrow and disappointment, is almost impossibly distant, fragile. First Loves reenacts the blurring of a perfect conception in the mind of a man who would devote his life to precision of thought and word. This opposition, of romantic and intellectual passion, drives the narrative and eventually brings it to crisis. First Loves could be described as a very private feat of honesty from a public intellectual. Solotaroff’s willingness to admit the failures, personal and professional, alongside the triumphs of his career gives a three-dimensional intensity to the emotions on the page. Working with all of the gritty and romantic elements of his storied life, Solotaroff manages to avoid a tone too heroic or honey-dipped; he manages simply to tell the tale.

A deliciously satirical postmodern romance Seven Wives reimagines the search for an enduring passionate love. The too-much-loved narrator, Jack, an extension of the everyman hero of Baumbach's novel Reruns marries seven women, including a childhood sweetheart, an older woman who turns out to be an unacceptably near relation, the loveliest woman in the world, a woman so fat that sex with her becomes impossibly difficult, and a woman who confuses violence and love. Jack's quest for the perfect marriage is, of course, doomed to failure and ultimately leads him to the edge of madness, but it also produces seven bizarrely interesting near-misses along the way. From his home in New York City, Jack tells his story after the fact, as a way of reclaiming himself. He obsesses not only about his search for the right woman but also about his quixotic pursuit of a version (or versions) of the American dream. Jack moves from cabdriver, to actor, to scriptwriter for pornographic movies, to entrepreneur, to Hollywood producer. Seven Wives treats marriage and career as inseparable pursuits on the same road to success. The two abiding issues of all of Baumbach's fiction - the erratic workings of the imagination and the even more erratic workings of the human heart--appear in their purest form in his latest novel.

"This book was the first comprehensive manual to deal with all facets of marriage within a halakhic framework. It was informed by the author's experience as an orthodox rabbi and psychologist specializing in marriage issues. Included are chapters dealing with the dating experience, the place of love in life and marriage, the ethics and goals of marriage, marital harmony, conjugal relations in theory and practice, and what happens when the marriage encounters difficulties. This valuable work formulates basic guidelines and gives advice for the development of a sound marriage. It also contains comprehensive notes anchoring the text to authentic Jewish tradition, and incorporates observations from the world of psychology. This highly acclaimed guide to marriage has now been republished for the first time, and includes an additional chapter on second marriages"--back cover.

Antonio Cristoforo Baldini, aka Tonly Baldwin, is born in New York's Little Italy in 1928 to an immigrant family on the fringes of organized crime. Tony, good-looking and a talented singer, romanticizes the dangerous lives of his brothers. Upon their violent deaths he turns away from the past, landing the lead in a Broadway musical, and falling in love with its wealthy producer, Priscilla Poyncroft Porter. However, Tony's charmed life, and his marriage, soon begin to unravel, and he finds himself drawn to a mysterious, matchstick violin made by a prisoner, and to his memories of the seductive lives of his brothers. His past, and present, begin to catch up with him. Soon, with the help of a therapist Dr. Norma Mellows, he finds himself making a case to fight for his freedom and true identity.

For Dick and Tammy, life was a struggle. With both finances and marriage failing Tammy turns to a family friend, Adam, for support when she realizes that baby Richard is not responding as he should. They are devastated to learn that baby Richard is severely deaf. Will this be the final straw, or will their love for their son keep Dick and Tammy together?