Marriage in Fiction

With apologies for the daft choice of photograph, I’d like to ask for your suggestions please.

Next Monday 10th February between 3.20 and 3.55 UK time, I’m going to be talking about marriage in fiction - and good marriages in particular - on Radio Maria England. There are, of course, many thousands of books in which marriage features in one way or another, though it is still comparatively rare to find a good marriage - however we might want to define it - in fiction.

I’m currently considering talking about the Narnia books (how many married couples appear there?), That Hideous Strength (in which Lewis hits the topic of marriage head on), The Lord of the Rings (a book in which marriage, I would argue, is hugely important), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the Harry Potter books, some of Marilynne Robinson’s novels, Great Expectations, Eugene Vodolazkin’s A History of the Island (a truly great book, which I shall write about in a separate post), Jon Fosse’s Septology and possibly some others which I’ll keep up my sleeve.

I can’t make any promises, not least because I may well not have read all the books you recommend, but I’d love your recommendations.