Dec 14, 2009

The Good Husband | Characters

There are four main characters: Magda Danvers, her husband Francis Lake, Alice Henry, and her husband Hugo Henry. At the book's opening, all seem more notable for what they have done in the past than for their current activities.

Magda, in her graduate school days, was a combination of brilliance, charisma, and self-promotion. She managed to get her study of visionary poets published before it was ever submitted as her dissertation — a flouting of academic taboos for which she later paid. In the "present" of the narrative, she is still witty, analytical, and full of unique...