How to Be a Good Wife

ISBN: 185124381X

Author: Bodleian Library

Condition: New

Dont think that your wife has placed waste-paper baskets in the rooms as ornaments.Dont forget that very true remark that while face powder may catch a man, baking powder is the stuff to hold him.Marriage can be a series of humorous miscommunications, a power struggle, or a diplomatic nightmare. Men and women have long struggled to figure each other out-and the misunderstandings can continue well after theyve been joined in matrimony. But long before Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, couples turned to self-help booklets such as How to Be a GoodHusband and How to Be a Good Wife, two historic advice books that are now delightfully reproduced by the Bodleian Library.The books, originally published in the 1930s for middle-class British couples, are filled with witty and charming aphorisms on how wives and husbands should treat each other. Some advice is unquestionably outdated-It is a wifes duty to look her best. If you dont tidy yourself up, dont be surprised if your husband begins to compare you unfavorably with the typist at the office-but many other pieces of advice are wholly applicable today. They include such insightful sayings as: Dont tell your wife terminological inexactitudes, which are, in plain English, lies. A woman has wonderful intuition for spotting even minor departures from the truth; After all is said and done, husbands are not terribly difficult to manage; or Dont squeeze the tube of toothpaste from the top instead of from the bottom. This is one of the small things of life that always irritates a careful wife.Entertaining and charmingly illustrated, How to Be a Good Husband and How to Be a Good Wife offer enduringly useful advice for all couples, from the newly engaged to those celebrating their golden anniversary.