Published in 1931 in the immediate aftermath of D H Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover controversy, Mollie Panter-Downes's book explores the different echelons of the increasingly self-conscious middle class and the ways in which the tensions and nuances of vocabulary, dress, occupation, politics, taste and, ultimately, the literary world contribute to the incompatibility of a marriage. Wife or mistress? Nevis finds herself caught in a whirl of circumstances over which she has no control. They live this superficial existence for three years, until one day Nevis meets Marcus Chard, her American publisher, who has just arrived in London. Temperamentally unsuited, they are only kept together by a mutual physical attraction, in spite of innumerable quarrels. My Husband Simon tells the story of the married life of Nevis Falconer, a young woman novelist, and Simon Quinn.
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