Devorah Baum

Baum is an erudite and entertaining guide through the landscape of marriage . . . from Kant to Fleabag via George Eliot and Nora Ephron . . . [On Marriage is] a fascinating exploration of an institution that, for better or worse, "continues to shape and carry our human story"

On the subject of conversation and its role in marriage Baum is . . . at her most resonant. . . . This is smart and right. . . . There is more in marriage than may be dreamt of in our philosophies

Baum is a master at unpicking cliches. She pushes at the boundaries of marriage as a framework for conceiving of ourselves in relation to others . . . Her nimble new work selects and analyses artistic renderings of marriage across philosophy, television, and literature – including work by the novelist Taffy Brodesser-Akner, the theorist Slavoj Žižek, and the screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bride

The New Yorker, 'The Best Books We Read This Week’

Rarely has the subject of marriage been attended to with such intelligence, breadth of reading and insight, but also with such scrutiny and hope

A comprehensively researched, wry examination of the many dimensions of marriage and how it has evolved

Exploring her own marriage has given Baum a unique vantage point from which to investigate the private intricacies of other people's arrangements . . . Her ability to sit in the midst of those arguments and unpick their various strands makes her work compelling, as does her willingness to self-interrogate

This delightful, acrobatic book is funny, thought-provoking and rigorous at the same time. An effervescent and timely meditation on marriage

Devorah Baum brings her literary understandings, psychoanalytic scholarship and great aplomb to the marriage conundrum. It's very funny too. Who wouldn't want to marry Devorah?

On Marriage is characterized by this kind of agile curiosity . . . Baum holds [marriage] up as a seduction

Because marriage doesn't always bring out the best in us, it makes us wonder what the best in us might be. It is part of the extraordinary wit and wisdom of Baum's remarkable book to show us what kind of romance, and experiment in living, we have wanted marriage to be

Everything you thought you knew about conjugal beds, secrets, feuds, confessions, triangulations and solaces will be pleasurably complicated by Devorah Baum's wryly insightful tell - all regarding the infinite perversity of marriage - including her own, mine, and probably yours

On Marriage is a hugely thought-provoking, witty, warm tour around every significant writer and thinker on love to have emerged since Adam and Eve. Baum is a charming guide to the wisdom of her inspiring judiciously curated cohort

Baum looks at marriage from multiple angles, legal and political, social and narrative, its interminability and its dailiness . . . it can be funny or tragic or both.  Baum’s methodology is to look at what is missing – a philosophy of marriage, a clear idea of what this dominant structure is and how it influences lives. Lovely

For better or worse, for richer for poorer, till death us do part – we’ve always done it and we’re still doing it. Of all our cultural institutions, marriage is the most ancient, but also the most puzzling. 
 
In this compelling and delightful book, Devorah Baum examines the many meanings we have given to marriage, interweaving the personal with insights from a host of writers, artists and thinkers. 
 
From Freud to Ferrante, and One Thousand and One Nights to Fleabag, she looks at marriage in all of its forms – from act of love to leap of faith, and asks: what are we really doing when we say ‘I do’? 
 
Both celebration and critique, On Marriage is a guide like no other to the landscape of marriage.

Devorah Baum

Praise for On Marriage

Baum is an erudite and entertaining guide through the landscape of marriage . . . from Kant to Fleabag via George Eliot and Nora Ephron . . . [On Marriage is] a fascinating exploration of an institution that, ...

On the subject of conversation and its role in marriage Baum is . . . at her most resonant. . . . This is smart and right. . . . There is more in marriage than may be dreamt of in our philosophies

Baum is a master at unpicking cliches. She pushes at the boundaries of marriage as a framework for conceiving of ourselves in relation to others . . . Her nimble new work selects and analyses artistic renderings of ...

Baum is an erudite and entertaining guide through the landscape of marriage . . . from Kant to Fleabag via George Eliot and Nora Ephron . . . [On Marriage is] a fascinating exploration of an institution that, ...

On the subject of conversation and its role in marriage Baum is . . . at her most resonant. . . . This is smart and right. . . . There is more in marriage than may be dreamt of in our philosophies

Baum is a master at unpicking cliches. She pushes at the boundaries of marriage as a framework for conceiving of ourselves in relation to others . . . Her nimble new work selects and analyses artistic renderings of ...

Baum is an erudite and entertaining guide through the landscape of marriage . . . from Kant to Fleabag via George Eliot and Nora Ephron . . . [On Marriage is] a fascinating exploration of an institution that, ...

On the subject of conversation and its role in marriage Baum is . . . at her most resonant. . . . This is smart and right. . . . There is more in marriage than may be dreamt of in our philosophies

Baum is a master at unpicking cliches. She pushes at the boundaries of marriage as a framework for conceiving of ourselves in relation to others . . . Her nimble new work selects and analyses artistic renderings of ...

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