Robin’s Reviews > The Black Prince > Status Update

"Oh he's been so awful to me, so vile and frightening - Sometimes he'd just go on and on and on saying 'I hate you, I hate you, I hate you' -"

"All spouses are murmuring that to each other all the time. It's the fundamental litany of marriage."

"Priscilla, calm yourself. You can't leave Roger. It doesn't make sense. Of course you'e unhappy, all married people are unhappy, but you can't just launch yourself on the world at fifty whatever you are now --"

"Fifty-two. Oh God, oh God--"

There is a natural tribal hostility between the married and the unmarried. I cannot stand the shows so often quite instinctively put on by married people to insinuate that they are not only more fortunate but in some way more moral than you are.

I shall not attempt here to describe my marriage. Some impression of it will doubtless emerge. For the present story, its general nature rather than its detail is important. It was not a success. At first I saw her as a life-bringer. Then I saw her as a death-bringer. Some women are like that.