Description
Book SynopsisAs a woman with a husband and other partners, philosopher Carrie Jenkins knows that love is complicated.
Love is most often associated with happiness, satisfaction and pleasure. But it has a darker side we ignore at our peril. Love is often an uncomfortable and difficult feeling. The people we love can let us down badly. And the ways we love are often quite different to the romantic ideals society foists upon us. Since we are inevitably disappointed by love, wouldn’t we be better off without it?
No, says Carrie Jenkins. Instead, we need a new philosophy of love, one that recognizes that the pain and suffering love causes are a natural, even a good part of what makes love worthwhile. What Jenkins calls “sad love” offers no bogus “happy ever afters”. Rather, it tries to find a way properly to integrate heartbreak and disappointment into the lived experience of love.
It’s time we liberated love.
Trade Review“This book will transform the ways people think about their love relationships.”
Myisha Cherry, author of The Case for Rage
“Do you ever get that feeling that a book just sees you? That was how I felt reading Sad Love. Jenkins deconstructs popular notions of happiness and romantic love with her characteristic combination of compassion, originality and rigour, challenging us to reconsider our foundational assumptions about what our relationships should even be for. I want everyone to read this book.”
Eve Rickert, co-author of More Than Two: A Practical Guide to Ethical Polyamory
“Sad Love zings with frustration at fairy tales, Valentine’s cards, romance novels and the ‘happy ever after’.”
The Sunday Telegraph Magazine
“Jenkins […] brings a light-touch speculative air to her ruminations.”
London Magazine
“Jenkins’s consideration of love beyond the traditional monogamous romantic model stimulates, and she’s equally thought-provoking whether unpacking 19th-century philosophers or Disney songs.”
Publishers Weekly
“a powerful alternative to ‘happily ever after.’”
Readers’ Digest
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Paradox of Happiness
Chapter 2: The Romantic Paradox
Chapter 3: Daimons
Chapter 4: Know Thyself
Chapter 5: Eudaimonic Love
Notes
