The Deceived Husband: A Kleinian Approach to the Literature of Infidelity

This is an ambitious and original study of the representation in European literature of adultery, focusing in particular on the figure of the husband. Detailed discussions of a wide range of texts, including The Canterbury Tales, The Decameron, Othello, Madame Bovary, and Anna Karenina reveal that fundamental anxieties about masculinity are repeatedly articulated in two main characterizations of the deceived husband: the cuckold and the man of honor. Innovative and challenging, The Deceived Husband is an important examination of a previously neglected aspect of European literature and of psychoanalytic literary criticism in general.