 First edition | |
| Author | Jackie Collins |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | W. H. Allen & Co. |
Publication date | 1968 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 173 |
| ISBN | 0-446-35717-0 |
| OCLC | 22745957 |
| Followed by | The Stud |
The World Is Full of Married Men is the debut novel of British author Jackie Collins, first published in 1968 by W. H. Allen & Co.
Set in London in the swinging sixties, middle-aged advertising executive David Cooper cheats on his wife Linda. When he meets the young and beautiful Claudia Parker, David wants to marry her. However, Claudia has different ideas; she wants to be a model, an actress, and a star. When Linda finds out about the affair she ends the marriage and files for divorce.
At first protesting, David finally relents and moves into an apartment with Claudia. After six months however, the pair are sick of each other and now that the divorce is finalized, Linda has started seeing Hollywood film producer Jay Grossman. Realizing his mistake in letting Linda go, David fails to win her back and falls into an alcoholic stupor that renders him virtually impotent and only able to perform with his mousy spinster secretary, Miss Fields, who ultimately falls pregnant with his child.
Without a literary agent but with the strong support and encouragement of her husband, Collins sent off the manuscript to a publisher. By this time, Jacqueline Susann's similarly themed novel Valley of the Dolls (1966) had already become a huge bestseller and a hit film, and Collins' novel was accepted. Within a week of its publication, The World Is Full of Married Men made the best-seller list.[ citation needed ]
The book was banned in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, [1] but the scandal bolstered sales in the United Kingdom and the US. [2] Collins' publishers at the time, W. H. Allen & Co., told her that unless she took the "four-letter words" out, the book would be banned in Australia. Collins proceeded in taking the four-letter words out and it was still banned in Australia. In reaction, Collins quipped, "What's the matter? Don't you have married men there?"
Romantic novelist Barbara Cartland called the book "nasty, filthy and disgusting", and charged Collins with "creating every pervert in Britain". When Collins sent a signed copy of the book to her father, Joe Collins, he stopped reading it after the first few pages. "Jackie's racy style was altogether too much for me", he later said and for the rest of his life he was never to read more than just a few pages of his daughter's racy pot-boilers. "I am not a prude", he said. "I'm thick skinned and broad-minded and hard to shock (but it is) distasteful for a father to read his daughter's descriptions of sex."[ attribution needed ]
A film version of the novel was made in 1979, eleven years after the novel's publication. With a screenplay written by Collins herself, and co-produced by her husband Oscar Lerman, the film was made to capitalize on the success of The Stud and The Bitch , two of Collins' other novels made into films in 1978 and 1979. The film version was set in the late 1970s (as opposed to the novel's 1960s setting) and featured American stars Anthony Franciosa and Carroll Baker as David and Linda Cooper, and included Gareth Hunt, Anthony Steel, Paul Nicholas, Georgina Hale, John Nolan, Jean Gilpin, Alison Elliott, and Stephanie Marrian, the Sun Newspaper's first page 3 girl in supporting roles. Newcomer Sherri Lee Cronn was cast (as Claudia Parker) in her first and only role.
Due to its setting, the film made much use of disco music and even featured an appearance by famed dance troupe Hot Gossip. The Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler had a UK Top 40 hit with the title track to the film, and also appeared in the film, performing the song during the opening credits. The song was also recorded by the American singer Bette Midler the same year.
The film version grossed $977,326 in the US. [3]
Brave New World is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by the story's protagonist. Huxley followed this book with a reassessment in essay form, Brave New World Revisited (1958), and with his final novel, Island (1962), the utopian counterpart. This novel is often compared as an inversion counterpart to George Orwell's 1984 (1949).
Dame Joan Henrietta Collins is an English actress, author and columnist. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award, two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. In 1983, Collins was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has been recognised for her philanthropy, particularly her advocacy towards causes relating to children, which has earned her many honours. In 2015, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for her charitable services, presented to her by the then Prince of Wales. She is one of the last surviving actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
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Kathleen Winsor was an American author. She is best known for her first work, the 1944 historical novel Forever Amber. The novel, racy for its time, became a runaway bestseller even as it drew criticism from some authorities for its depictions of sexuality. She wrote seven other novels, none of which matched the success of her debut.
Peril at End House is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the US by the Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1932 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in March of the same year. The US edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6).
Jacqueline Jill Collins was an English romance novelist and actress. She moved to Los Angeles in 1985 and spent most of her career there. She wrote 32 novels, all of which appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list. Her books have sold more than 500 million copies and have been translated into 40 languages. Eight of her novels have been adapted for the screen, either as films or television miniseries. She was the younger sister of Dame Joan Collins.
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Endless Night is a crime novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 30 October 1967 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retailed at eighteen shillings (18/-) and the US edition at $4.95. It was one of her favourites of her own works and received some of the warmest critical notices of her career upon publication.
The Stud is a 1978 British drama film directed by Quentin Masters and starring Joan Collins and Oliver Tobias. It is based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Collins's younger sister Jackie Collins.
The Bitch is a 1979 British drama film directed by Gerry O'Hara. It is a sequel to The Stud (1978) and, like its predecessor, is based on a novel by the British author Jackie Collins and stars her sister Joan Collins as Fontaine Khaled. Both films were made for a relatively small sum but were highly profitable at the box office, and were among the first successes in the emerging home video market of the early 1980s.
Hollywood Wives is a 1983 novel by the British author Jackie Collins. It was her ninth novel, and her most successful, selling over 15 million copies.
The Stud is the second novel by British novelist Jackie Collins, published in 1969 by W. H. Allen & Co. with jacket photography by Lewis Morley. The names of the central characters in the first edition were changed in later editions following the release of the film adaptation. For example, the titular "stud" Tony Burg was renamed Tony Blake, and the character Fontaine Khaled was originally named Fontaine Damon. The novel was edited in later editions to make it appear more contemporary. Collins also re-wrote the book, re-issuing it as an e-book, along with its follow-up, The Bitch.
Sunday Simmons & Charlie Brick was the third novel from English novelist Jackie Collins, published in 1971 by W. H. Allen, it was retitled The Hollywood Zoo in 1975 and then as Sinners in 1984.
The Santangelo novels are a series of novels written by Jackie Collins, which focus on the Santangelo family, particularly Gino Santangelo, an Italian-American former gangster, and his daughter Lucky. The novels, which take place from the 1920s to the present day, are set in the world of organised crime and include the Santangelos' rivalry with the Bonnatti and Kassari families. There are nine novels in the Santangelo saga and one spin-off. Confessions of a Wild Child (2013), is a prequel depicting Lucky's teenage years, which were briefly explored in the first Santangelo novel, Chances (1981).
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Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring is a 1971 American made-for-television drama film directed by Joseph Sargent and starring Sally Field, Eleanor Parker, Jackie Cooper, Lane Bradbury and David Carradine. The film premiered as the ABC Movie of the Week on February 16, 1971.
The World Is Full of Married Men is a 1979 British romantic drama film directed by Robert William Young, based on Jackie Collins' 1968 novel of the same name.