I read The Marriage Plot a year and a half ago when I was still sorting out my dissertation topic and trying to figure out which texts I was using. After reading this book, I decided that it was necessary for my topic. So, this re-read is in preparation for the writing of my current chapter–and I promise, an unread book review is coming up soon!
Madeleine Hanna is rather traditional in her book tastes–she prefers Jane Austen, George Eliot, and Balzac to more contemporary authors like Saul Bellow or Philip Roth. She writes her undergrad thesis on “the marriage plot” but doesn’t actually realize that she is being drawn into one herself. She takes a class in Semiotics and Deconstruction in 1982, where she first meets Leonard Bankhead and falls for him. At the same time, his romantic rival, Mitchell Grammaticus, is obsessed with Madeleine and embarking on a spiritual quest. Their lives intersect in interesting ways, questioning the generic setup of the marriage plot altogether. Is it possible to reach a “happily ever after” through the novelistic setup of the domestic plot? Or does our society force a different set of choices upon us?
Eugenides undertakes a genre that is sometimes considered stuffy or old and revises it in ingenious and refreshing ways. He particularly interacts with Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady to show how our views of marriage, gender, and the domestic have had to change with the changes in our attitudes and society. If you’ve read Middlesex or The Virgin Suicides, I can tell you that this is a very different kind of novel. But no less worth it, and enjoyable in its own way. While I don’t consider the characters themselves to be super likeable, the way Eugenides plots out the inversion of a marriage plot is clever and highly interesting.
You can also read this review on my personal blog, The Universe Disturbed.
I’m really curious – what other books are you using for your dissertation, and what’s your topic?
Thanks so much for asking! I am examining the novel of manners in contemporary literature, particularly in how masculinities interact with and are shaped by domesticity. I am working with Hanif Kureishi’s *The Buddha of Suburbia,* this and Alan Hollinghurst’s *The Line of Beauty,* Kazuo Ishiguro’s *The Remains of the Day* with Ian McEwan’s *The Child in Time,* and Martin Amis’s *Money* with Bret Easton Ellis’s *American Psycho.*
I read this a couple of years ago, and while enjoyed it overall I just could not get over my dislike of Madeleine. She drove me nuts, but I was just reading it for fun. What is your dissertation on? I’m intrigued as to how you would use it.
Yeah, Madeleine is a pretty stagnant character–certainly not like the many female protagonists she so admires! In my comment to Jen K above, I gave a brief overview of my dissertation. I’m writing on *The Marriage Plot* right now, actually, so I’m looking at how Eugenides and Alan Hollinghurst use Henry James’s *The Portrait of a Lady* to re-examine masculinity in the novel of manners. Thanks for asking! It’s nice to talk about my project with people who aren’t other academics. :)
I love The Portrait of a Lady! I read it years and years ago now, but I remember just being absolutely in love with James’ prose. And your thesis sounds quite interesting. I’m a different type of academic (scientist) so all my reading is just for fun, and results in my being constantly jealous of your english folks. Also, I’ve read half the books you listed, so the rest are going to have to go on the list!