THE BEST ADULTERY (According to the Penguin List
Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert
Thérèse Raquin
Emile Zola
Les Liaisons dangereuses
Choderlos de Laclos
The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy
Best Adultery according to Semicolon
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Of course, this novel is the definitive study of adultery and its consequences.
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. Emma Bovary comes in a close second as Foolish Woman of the Year. Eldest Daughter thought Emma Bovary was annoying, and I must agree. But she’s supposed to be annoying.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I suppose so although I think Ms. Prynne is annoying. And what she ever saw in that Dim guy, I don’t know.
Le Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory. Those knights of the Round Table and Arthur himself were so promiscuous that it’s hard to keep up. But it can always be blamed on some magical trick. “I didn’t mean to sleep with her. It was a magical castle.” Camelot: where all sin is illusion.
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Scarlett’s adulterous longings are never even consummated (are they?), but she commits adultery nevertheless. Why would anyone choose insipid Ashley over virile Rhett? Yes, I’m thinking of Leslie Howard and Clark Gable, but really, how could she?
Adultery as a theme in literature is full of interest because it’s human and multi-faceted. To paraphrase Tolstoy, all sex and debauchery (see previous posts on the Penguin list) is accomplished in much the same way; each adulterer heads for destruction, unhappy in his or her own peculiar way.
I found “Madam Bovary” beyond depressing. Actually, I get depressed just remembering how depressing it was. I read it just after I was married, too – talk about casually picking up the wrong novel.
I’m enjoying your lists, Sherry!
The best literary use of adultery that I ever read was in Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose. The amazing thing is that actual adultery may or may not have occured–I’ve had some rousing discussions both pro & con–but that emotional adultery & the mere [potential] appearance of adultery had lifelong effects. Mr. Stegner makes his important point without being preachy at all. Everyone even generations afterward pay for these actions in various ways. This book is in my personal top 5.
Catch-22 and The Caine Mutiny come to mind.
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