A Severed Head
A novel about the frightfulness and ruthlessness of being in love, from the author of the Booker Prize-winning novel The Sea, The Sea
Martin Lynch-Gibson believes he can possess both a beautiful wife and a delightful lover. But when his wife, Antonia, suddenly leaves him for her psychoanalyst, Martin is plunged into an intensive emotional reeducation. He attempts to behave beautifully and sensibly. Then he meets a woman whose demonic splendor at first repels him and later arouses a consuming and monstrous passion. As his Medusa informs him, “this is nothing to do with happiness.”
A Severed Head was adapted for a successful stage production in 1963 and was later made into a film starring Claire Bloom, Lee Remick, Richard Attenborough, and Ian Holm.
Martin Lynch-Gibson believes he can possess both a beautiful wife and a delightful lover. But when his wife, Antonia, suddenly leaves him for her psychoanalyst, Martin is plunged into an intensive emotional reeducation. He attempts to behave beautifully and sensibly. Then he meets a woman whose demonic splendor at first repels him and later arouses a consuming and monstrous passion. As his Medusa informs him, “this is nothing to do with happiness.”
A Severed Head was adapted for a successful stage production in 1963 and was later made into a film starring Claire Bloom, Lee Remick, Richard Attenborough, and Ian Holm.
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Community Reviews
Fun little farce set in London and surrounding areas during the "Sexual Revolution" of the '60s. Martin Lynch-Gibbons, 41, is comfortable with his life - married to Antonia, 10 years older, whom he adores, but also has a mistress, 20-something Georgie Hands. Then his life gets turned upside down when he learns that not only has Antonia been having an affair with her psychoanalyst, Palmer Anderson (a good friend of Martin's), she's planning on leaving him and marrying Palmer. But, they want him to know, they both love him and want to keep him close. Then it gets weirder from there. Martin falls under the spell of yet another woman, who he is at first repulsed by and then becomes suddenly obsessed with. It's hard to keep track of who's sleeping with who, but a lot of fun along the way.
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