Modern marriage and how to bear it

"Modern Marriage and How to Bear It" by Maud Churton Braby is a study of marriage in the late 1800s, that looks closely at how people were becoming unhappy in their relationships and starting to question the rules of marriage. Braby openly talks about why men and women were unsure about getting married, and what problems they faced once they were married, discussing the reasons behind the growing unhappiness in marriage. The book begins by pointing out that many people were not happy with marriage and it had become a hot topic. She uses ideas from important thinkers like Tolstoy and George Meredith to show that people saw traditional marriage as old-fashioned or broken, laying the foundation for her discussion of what society expects from marriage, how men and women act towards each other, and the different types of marriages that existed, showing the complexities and changing thoughts about modern marriage.