From : The sunday Time
Photo : Google Images

Mistresses through the ages

Prostitute, concubine, mistress, wife: the boundaries are blurred in this study

What is a mistress? Elizabeth Abbott, who has also published A History of Celibacy and held the post of Dean of Women at Trinity College, University of Toronto, offers this definition: “a woman voluntarily or forcibly engaged in a relatively long-term sexual relationship with a man who is usually married to another woman”. Given the persistence of this model across time and cultures, Abbott maintains that “mistressdom”, like celibacy, is therefore an essential means by which to consider sexual relationships outside marriage – “in fact, an institution parallel and complementary to marriage”. Considering the media’s current obsession with love-rat footballers and cheating celebs, “mistressdom” might also be considered a safe bet for a publisher’s list, and Abbott duly provides us with a generally cheerful tumble through adultery down the ages.

MORE............

Bookyards Editor: For more E-Books ,go here...


TOP:

Hardcover fiction

1. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
By Stieg Larsson. Knopf.

2. Freedom
By Jonathan Franzen. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

3. Catching Fire
By Suzanne Collins. Scholastic

4. Swamplandia! (tie)
By Karen Russell. Knopf.

4. Solo
By Rana Dasgupta. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth (tie)
By Jeff Kinney. Amulet.

5. Great House
By Nicole Krauss. W.W. Norton.

6. The Fates Will Find Their Way
By Hannah Pittard. Ecco.

7. The Death Instinct
By Jed Rubenfeld. Riverhead.

8. While Mortals Sleep
By Kurt Vonnegut. Delacorte.