Ex-Wife

Synopsis

An instant bestseller when it was published anonymously in 1929, Ex-Wife is the story of a divorce and its aftermath that scandalized the Jazz Age—and still resonates today.

It is 1924, and Peter and Patricia appear to have a remarkably modern marriage. Both drink, smoke, and work, and both accept what they call an “honesty policy” when it comes to sex with other people. Until Peter breaks the rules. Suddenly Patricia finds herself alone and starting over as a different kind of single woman: an ex-wife.

Moving through speakeasies, nightclubs, parties, bedrooms, doctors’ offices, and the lonely hours of a newly independent life, Ex-Wife captures both the freedoms and constraints of being a woman in Jazz Age New York. Sharp, unsentimental, and darkly funny, it offers a strikingly modern portrait of marriage, divorce, sex, and female independence.

About the Author

Ursula Parrott (1899–1957) was born Katherine Ursula Towle in Dorchester, Massachusetts. After graduating from Radcliffe College, she became a newspaper reporter in New York. Her own divorce helped inspire Ex-Wife, which she published anonymously in 1929 and which sold 100,000 copies in its first year. She became one of the most successful female writers of the 1930s, with several novels adapted for film.

Alissa Bennett is an essayist whose work explores fandom, celebrity, and popular culture. Marc Parrott (1923–1988), Ursula Parrott’s only son, contributes an afterword to this edition.

Publisher

McNally Editions

Publication Date

May 2, 2023

Format

Paperback

Pages

232

Subjects

Love & Other Disasters · Historical Fiction · Literary Fiction · Women’s Fiction · Marriage & Divorce · Jazz Age

ISBN

9781946022561