The Beauty of the Husband Book Summary

In 'The Beauty of the Husband,' Anne Carson explores the complexities of love and betrayal through a poignant blend of poetry and prose. The narrative unfolds as a deeply personal reflection, delving into the intricacies of a tumultuous marriage laden with desire and disillusionment. Carson's lyrical storytelling weaves together the beauty and brutality of intimate relationships, challenging readers to reflect on the nature of affection and the pain of loss. Each page reverberates with emotional depth, inviting contemplation of how beauty can both enchant and torment. This memoir-like work provokes questions about love's fleeting nature and the stories we weave around our deepest connections.

By Anne Carson

Published: 2002

"In the complexity of love and desire, where beauty and betrayal dance in shadows, we find that the heart's longing often eclipses reason."

Book Review of The Beauty of the Husband

The Beauty Of The Husband is an essay on Keats’s idea that beauty is truth, and is also the story of a marriage. It is told in 29 tangos. A tango (like a marriage) is something you have to dance to the end. This clear-eyed, brutal, moving, darkly funny book tells a single story in an immediate, accessible voice–29 “tangos” of narrative verse that take us vividly through erotic, painful, and heartbreaking scenes from a long-time marriage that falls apart. Only award-winning poet Anne Carson could create a work that takes on the oldest of lyrical subjects–love–and make it this powerful, this fresh, this devastating.

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In the complexity of love and desire, where beauty and betrayal dance in shadows, we find that the heart's longing often eclipses reason.

The Beauty of the Husband

By Anne Carson