The Odds Against Us

by Anna Taylor

Longmans, Green and Co., 1969, [First Edition], hardcover, dustjacket, 

Near Fine Condition, minor edge and shelf wear, price-clipped dustjacket has minor edge and shelf wear with some very tiny tears to bottom front edge (see photographs)

'...examines the dilemma of a young couple, both of whom feel that they have been trapped into marriage: Mary Bernstein, forced to cut short her university course by pregnancy and now the mother of two small sons; Arch, her Jewish husband, who refuses to give up painting in order to support his family.  Set in London, Oxford and Cornwall, the novel sharply contrasts town and country, luxury and poverty, the intellectual and the physical life.  It powerfully portrays the pressures of contemporary attitudes, especially as they affect the happiness of the young; and, at a deeper level, it examines the problem of personal freedom from domination by husband, wife or lover; freedom to pursue the urge of the creative artist for self-expression.'