// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did "Before She Met Me" say to its author? "You're writing my past.
 First edition | |
| Author | Julian Barnes |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
| Publication date | 1982 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 183 pp |
| ISBN | 0224019856 |
Before She Met Me is a novel by English writer Julian Barnes, first published in 1982 by Jonathan Cape.[1] It is a black comedy which scrutinizes the awakening of sexual jealousy in a dull and otherwise sensible college lecturer.[2]
Overview
[edit]After fifteen years of marriage to a nagging woman who despises everything about him, Graham Hendrick files for divorce and marries Ann, a beautiful former actress and seemingly the woman of his dreams. Initially he believes this to be the start of the good life and congratulates himself. However, as he learns more about Ann's past, he starts to obsess over the time before he knew her, resenting her previous love affairs, apparently unable to accept that she enjoyed a life at all before they met.
As Graham imagines non-existent humiliations and concocts plans for revenge on previous lovers, his increasingly strange behaviour begins to alarm first his wife and then his friend Jack, whom he soon suspects of cuckolding him.[3]
References
[edit]- ↑ "Explore the British Library".
- ↑ "Julian Barnes website: Before She Met Me". Archived from the original on 8 May 2014. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
- ↑ Kakutani, Michiko (17 December 1986). "Books of the Times". The New York Times.
 | This article about a 1980s novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. See guidelines for writing about novels. Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page. |