LIVES OF THE WIVES

A series of eye-opening vignettes about the romantic and practical sacrifices five women made for their literary partners.

Whether serving as muse, assistant, mother figure, antagonist, or lover—or some combination thereof—these women were crucial to the careers of their partners, but the road was often rocky, fraught with numerous challenges. In her latest book, Ciuraru, author of Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms, offers a rare window into five relationships—Una Troubridge and Radclyffe Hall, Elsa Morante and Alberto Moravia, Elaine Dundy and Kenneth Tynan, Elizabeth Jane Howard and Kingsley Amis, and Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl—providing a respectful yet unflinching look inside the daily, often complicated lives of the writers and their wives. Once romantically entwined, the wives often had to shelve their own aspirations in order to nurture their partners, sometimes fighting like hell to keep their own identities. They often grappled with substance abuse, codependency, domestic violence, professional envy, and infidelity (Troubridge, Howard). “Modern marriage,” writes Ciuraru, “is a series of compromises, a relentless juggling act of work obligations, childcare demands, household chores, money squabbles, hoarded grievances, simmering hostilities, and intimacy issues….Toss in male privilege, ruthless ambition, narcissism, misogyny, infidelity, alcoholism, and a mood disorder or two, and it’s easy to understand why the marriages of so many famous writers have been stormy, short-lived, and mutually destructive.” While none of the stories fade into the sunset with a neat, happily-ever-after conclusion, Ciuraru shows how some of these women thrived in their own careers later in life. “As has been true historically for many women artists and writers,” she writes, “only a divorce or the death of a spouse liberated them to create and publish their best work—or any work at all.” While the stories of betrayal and suffering might not exactly ruin literary heroes, readers beware: The reality is often harsh—but also fascinating.

An illuminating, well-rendered literary biography.