Adultery in literature
The theme of adultery has been used in a wide range of literature through the ages, and has served as a theme for some of the greatest works ever written, such as Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary. As a theme it brings intense emotions into the foreground, and has consequences for all concerned. It also automatically brings its own conflict, between the people concerned and between sexual desires and a sense of loyalty.
As marriage and family are often regarded as basis of society a story of adultery often shows the conflict between social pressure and individual struggle for happiness.
In the Bible, incidents of adultery are present almost from the start. The story of Abraham contains several incidents and serve as warnings or stories of sin and forgiveness. Abraham attempts to continue his blood line through his wife's maidservant, with consequences that continue through history. Jacob's family life is complicated with similar incidents.
The following works of literature have adultery and its consequences as one of their major themes. (M) and (F) stand for adulterer and adulteress respectively.
"...Yet in his preoccupations, the indulgent sage of the East Coast perhaps had more in common with Mortimer. Not for nothing was he known as a "chronicler of suburban adultery". Updike's most famous novels – Couples, the Rabbit tetrology, The Witches of Eastwick – were peopled by characters, such as Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, who were lax-conscienced pleasure-seekers barely troubled by illicit sexual adventure."
- Kingsley Amis: That Uncertain Feeling (M,F)
- Leopoldo Alas: La Regenta (F)
- Malcolm Bradbury: The History Man (M,F)
- John Braine: The Jealous God (M,F)
- Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre (M,F)
- James M. Cain: The Postman Always Rings Twice (F)
- Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales (M,F)
- Kate Chopin: The Awakening (F)
- Albert Cohen: Belle du Seigneur (F)
- Ivy Compton-Burnett: A Heritage and Its History (F)
- F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby (M,F); Tender Is the Night (M,F)
- Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary (F)
- Theodor Fontane: Effi Briest (M,F)
- Ford Maddox Ford: The Good Soldier (M,F)
- C.S. Forester: Flying Colours, Lord Hornblower (M)
- Ellen Glasgow: Virginia (M)
- Graham Greene: The end of the affair (F); The Heart of the Matter (M)
- Mark Haddon: A Spot of Bother (F)
- Josephine Hart: Damage (M)
- Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter (F)
- Carl Hiaasen: Skinny Dip (M)
- Francis Iles: Malice Aforethought (M)
- John Irving: The World According to Garp (M,F)
- Milan Kundera: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (M)
- D. H. Lawrence: Lady Chatterley's Lover (F)
- David Lodge: Thinks ... (M)
- William Somerset Maugham: Liza of Lambeth (M)
- Arthur Miller: The Crucible (M,F)
- Nicholas Mosley: Natalie Natalia (M)
- Iris Murdoch: A Severed Head (M,F)
- John O'Hara: Elizabeth Appleton (F)
- Boris Pasternak: Doctor Zhivago (M)
- Raymond Radiguet: Le Bal du Comte d'Orgel (F)
- Irwin Shaw: Lucy Crown (F)
- Rabindranath Tagore: The Home and the World (F)
- Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina (F)
- Scott Turow: Presumed Innocent (M)
- Fay Weldon: The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (M)
- Edith Wharton: Ethan Frome (M)
- A. N. Wilson: Scandal (M,F)
- Richard Yates: Revolutionary Road (M,F)
- Stefan Zweig: Confusion: The Private Papers of Privy Councillor R. Von D (M)
- James Joyce: Ulysses (F)
- Machado de Assis: Dom Casmurro (F)
References
- "Farewell, King John of Suburbia", New Statesman, 29 January 2009