Author | Ursula Parrott |
---|---|
Subject | Adultery Fiction, Divorce Fiction, Divorced women Fiction, Nineteen twenties Fiction, Self-realization in women Fiction |
Genre | Novel |
Published | 1929, 1930, 1989, 2023 |
Publisher | J. Cape & H. Smith [1929]; Grosset & Dunlap [1930]; New American Library [1989]; McNally Editions [2023]. |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print, E-book, Audio |
Pages | 210+ |
ISBN | 9781946022561 9781946022578 |
OCLC | 1347428967 |
Website | Publisher's website |
Ex-Wife is a 1929 novel written by Ursula Parrott and reissued by McNally Editions in 2023 with an afterword by Marc Parrott, the author's son, and a foreword by Alissa Bennett, a writer for the Paris Review. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
The book was a commercial success in 1929, and it maintained its success throughout the depression era 1930s, but fell out of print. It was reissued in 1989 and again in 2023. It was originally published anonymously "to underscore the salaciousness of its material." [1] [3] Shortly after the book’s publication, the media began hunting for the author's identity, and whether the protagonist’s portrayal was actually fictional, somewhat autobiographical or was critiquing a culture undergoing tectonic shifts. [2] By August 1929, the year of this book's publication, the successful sleuthing revealed the author to be "Katherine Ursula Parrott, a journalist and fashion writer..." [2]
The book also became a movie, “The Divorcee,” starring Norma Shearer, who won an Oscar for her role.
A young woman named Patricia finds herself in the ambiguous space between marriage and divorce. [2] The novel is set in New York City during the Jazz Age, and it explores the themes of female independence, sexual liberation, and the changing social mores of the time. A thread that runs throughout the story for Patricia is profound loss resulting in loneliness. After Patricia's open marriage fails, alcohol induced binges, multiple one night stands, and affairs become a mainstay. [1] [2] There is also the cultural dissonance between Victorian morality, carried into the new century, and the emerging sexual freedom that encompasses the permissibility of casual sex. [2] [3] Also, as a distraction from her devastating losses, Patricia "buys clothes she can’t afford; she gets facials and has her hair done; she listens to songs on repeat while wearily wondering why heartache always seems to bookend love." [2]
The Divorcee is a 1930 American pre-Code drama film written by Nick Grindé, John Meehan, and Zelda Sears, based on the 1929 novel Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott. It was directed by Robert Z. Leonard, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. The film was also nominated for Best Picture, and won Best Actress for its star Norma Shearer.
Their Own Desire is a 1929 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by E. Mason Hopper and starring Norma Shearer, Belle Bennett, Lewis Stone, Robert Montgomery, and Helene Millard. The film was adapted by James Forbes and Frances Marion from the novel by Sarita Fuller; Lucille Newmark wrote the titles. It is also the last MGM film in the 1920s. Shearer was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, but lost to herself for The Divorcee.
Constance Campbell Bennett was an American stage, film, radio, and television actress and producer. She was a major Hollywood star during the 1920s and 1930s; during the early 1930s, she was the highest-paid actress in Hollywood. Bennett frequently played society women, focusing on melodramas in the early 1930s and then taking more comedic roles in the late 1930s and 1940s. She is best remembered for her leading roles in What Price Hollywood? (1932), Bed of Roses (1933), Topper (1937), Topper Takes a Trip (1938), and had a prominent supporting role in Greta Garbo's last film, Two-Faced Woman (1941).
Women in Love is a 1920 novel by English author D. H. Lawrence. It is a sequel to his earlier novel, The Rainbow (1915), and follows the continuing loves and lives of the Brangwen sisters, Gudrun and Ursula. Gudrun Brangwen, an artist, pursues a destructive relationship with Gerald Crich, an industrialist. Lawrence contrasts this pair with the love that develops between Ursula Brangwen and Rupert Birkin, an alienated intellectual who articulates many opinions associated with the author. The emotional relationships thus established are given further depth and tension by an intense psychological and physical attraction between Gerald and Rupert.
Fear of Flying is a 1973 novel by Erica Jong. It became controversial for its portrayal of female sexuality, and figured in the development of second-wave feminism.
Paule Marshall was an American writer, best known for her 1959 debut novel Brown Girl, Brownstones. In 1992, at the age of 63, Marshall was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship grant.
Tracy Quan is an American writer and former sex worker. She is best known for her Nancy Chan novels. In addition, Quan has written a regular column for The Guardian website on pop culture, sex and politics and is involved in the sex workers' rights movement.
Couples is a 1968 novel by American author John Updike.
A Fairly Honourable Defeat is a novel by the British writer and philosopher Iris Murdoch. Published in 1970, it was her thirteenth novel.
Next Time We Love is a 1936 American melodrama film directed by Edward H. Griffith and starring Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart and Ray Milland. The adapted screenplay was by Melville Baker, with an uncredited Preston Sturges and Doris Anderson, based on Ursula Parrott's 1935 novel Next Time We Live, which was serialized before publication as Say Goodbye Again. The film is also known as Next Time We Live in the U.K.
There's Always Tomorrow is a 1956 American romantic melodrama film directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray and Joan Bennett. The screenplay by Bernard C. Schoenfeld was adapted from the novel of the same name by Ursula Parrott. The plot concerns a man's unhappiness with his domestic life and romantic relationship with a former employee. The film was produced by Ross Hunter for Universal Pictures, which had also produced the 1934 adaptation of Parrott's novel. It was released in the United States on January 8, 1956.
Loving Frank is a 2007 American novel by Nancy Horan. It tells the story of Mamah Borthwick's illicit love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright and the public shame they experienced in early twentieth century America. It is a fictionalised account told from Borthwick's perspective, based on research conducted by Horan, and it is her debut novel. It depicts Borthwick’s life as it became intertwined with Wright's between the years of 1907 through 1914. By following the artistic aspirations and travels of the two main protagonists, the novel portrays the social mores of the times in the United States and Europe.
Michael Neely Bryan was an American jazz guitarist.
Ex-wife may refer to:
Flaming Youth is a 1923 American silent drama film directed by John Francis Dillon and starring Colleen Moore and Milton Sills, based on the novel of the same name by Samuel Hopkins Adams. Associated First National produced and distributed the film. In his retrospective essay "Echoes of the Jazz Age", writer F. Scott Fitzgerald cited Flaming Youth as the only film that captured the sexual revolution of the Jazz Age.
Alissa Nutting is an American author, creative writing professor and television writer. Her writing has appeared in Tin House, Fence, BOMB and the fairy tale anthology My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me.
Ursula Parrott, was a prolific modern novelist, screenwriter, and short story writer whose sensational first novel, Ex-Wife (1929), was a Jazz Age best seller. Adapted for film as The Divorcee, it starred Norma Shearer. Exploring divorce, abortion, infidelity, changing ideas about marriage, and the disastrous effects of the new morality on women, Ex-Wife created a scandal because of its frank depiction of young working women in a New York City drenched in cocktails and Scotch. From 1930 to 1936, Parrott sold the rights to eight novels and stories that were made into films.
Life After Life is a 2013 novel by Kate Atkinson. It is the first of two novels about the Todd family. The second, A God in Ruins, was published in 2015. Life After Life garnered acclaim from critics.
Testimonies is a 1952 novel, set in North Wales, by the English author Patrick O'Brian. It was first published in the UK under the title Three Bear Witness and in the US as Testimonies. The book was re-issued in 1993 (US) and 1994 (UK), both under the title Testimonies.
Ursula Jones is a British actor and author of children's fiction. Her picture book The Witch's Children and the Queen won a gold Nestlé Smarties Book Prize, and the sequel The Witch's Children Go to School won the inaugural Roald Dahl Funny Prize.