SUGAR PILL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 786, 13 August 1954, Page 13

SUGAR PILL

THE ART OF BEING HAPPILY. MARRIED, by. André Maurois; the Bodley Head, English price 8/6. ~VEN the best books of good advice probably have little influence upon behaviour. We accept as much as our self-love will allow and forget or, more likely, ignore the rest. If, as seems probable, the strength of our resistance is directly related to the extent to which we are talked at, this little book should be more effective than most; for M. Maurois talks to us not directly but through an imaginary Professor of Mattimonial JRelations (French, thank heaven!) and an imaginary couple who act out his advice. Those seeking a deeper understanding will get it, though with more effort, from Tom Hopkinsaqn’s tecent Love’s Apprentice, but -this is ‘all the same a useful and very practical

primer, which says more than most books of the kind, and is very amusing as well. g M. Maurois is on the side of fidelity, but he doesn’t believe infidelity or the seducer’s success should cause surprise or be the occasion of too much selfrighteous anger, if love and intimacy in marriage have been allowed to become a mere habit. He would probably agree that art is the operative word in his title, which is another way of saying that even such virtues as, say, frankness and spontaneity, may serve us ill if we don’t try first and last to be civilised. Attractively produced, The: Art of Being Happily Married would be a useful present for any of the many who still fly in the face of Mr. Punch’s

advice.

F.A.

J.