My Favorite Marriages in Literature

It’s so hard to tell who is the villain and who is the victim in the tumultuous marriage between Lotto and Mathilde. But author Lauren Groff does a brilliant job of crafting the inner worlds of both of these complicated spouses from the beginning to the end of their marriage.

It’s easy for modern couples to complain about marriage being hard. You know what was really hard? Life on the prairie, but Pa and Ma Ingalls made it work despite lives constantly filled with turmoil and upheaval.

Curtis Sittenfeld’s novel is told from the point of view of a kind-but-complicated librarian who marries a brash and charismatic young man who eventually becomes president. Sure it might be based on the life of Laura Bush, but the fictional Alice and Charlie Blackwell are much more than satire and more interesting than the real thing.

You’d have to dig pretty deep to find a marriage more damaged than the one between Nick and Amy. Gillian Flynn is so good at making these characters both contemptuous and relatable. Besides, who hasn’t imagined staging their own death and framing their husband every once in awhile….