Married to Genius: A Fascinating Insight Into the Married Lives of Nine Modern Writers

by Jeffrey Meyers

Married to Genius considers the emotional and artistic commitment in the marriages of nine modern Leo Tolstoy, George Bernard Shaw, Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, D.H. Lawrence, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. These writers believed that marriage provided their most profound relationships, and although their lives reveal the strains of modern marriage, their creativity was directly inspired by their emotional and intellectual conflicts. It is a fascinating study of how these celebrated figures attempted to integrate life and art.

Genres: Biography, Literature, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2005

About the author

Jeffrey Meyers, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, has recently been given an Award in Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Thirty of his books have been translated into fourteen languages and seven alphabets, and published on six continents. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Reviews

[Mick Meyers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought I might have read something new but all it lead me to believe you cannot be a writer and be happy.all the art world seems to attract the very miserable,or im a tortured genius and misunderstood. 8 suppose happiness doesn't sell.p.s do not get married it only exsarbates the situation.

[Lindsay Talmud · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is fascinating about this book is not only the insight into the lives of the modern writers, but how they wove their relationships into their writing. Each case is interesting in its own way and sufficiently unique to sustain interest. A great read.

[Hamilson 21 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Una narración muy tendenciosa donde la figura del escritor es la del genio y su esposa la loca que no lo deja vivir en su arte o donde la escritora está loca, suicida y envidiosa y el esposo es quien la soporta. Muy terrible, buen chisme pero desde una posición machista a mí parecer

[Ilze · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are things one knows about famous people and then, because biographers never really get the facts straight, you discover more. This is what it felt like reading about the writers in this book - and it kept me hooked till the end. It's just a pity that Meyers occasionally presumes that the reader knows who you're talking about and bandies names about that were meaningless to me. Interesting read never the less.

[Alejandro Saint-Barthélemy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My wife bought this book for her (;), but I've read it first.

Recommended to fans of the writers discussed here, for there is rare documentation about them.

Highly, highly recommended to shitty spouses (I was one... until this very year), and especially to writers (for them to stop writing as soon as possible [working on it]).

Illuminating self-help book.

[Mythili · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of interesting tidbits.