The World's Wife

By Carol Ann Duffy

Explore the untold stories of famous figures' partners, revealing unexpected truths.

4.1/5 Goodreads · 11,283 ratings

76 pages

$18.00Save 5%

In stock. Also at Amazon or Bookshop.

Bookroo's summary

Dive into a world where Mrs. Midas, Queen Kong, and others share their untold stories. These women, linked to legendary men, reveal their hidden fears, desires, and betrayals. What secrets do they hold? Discover the wit and imagination that bring these voices to life, challenging myths and history with a contemporary twist. Each poem offers a fresh perspective, inviting you to question what you thought you knew about these iconic figures. Will their stories change your view of the past?

From the publisher

Be terrified. It’s you I love, perfect man, Greek God, my own; but I know you’ll go, betray me, strayfrom home.So better by far for me if you were stone.–from “Medusa” Stunningly original and haunting, the voices of Mrs. Midas, Queen Kong, and Frau Freud, to say nothing of the Devil’s Wife herself, startle us with their wit, imagination, and incisiveness in this collection of poems written from the perspectives of the wives, sisters, or girlfris of famous – and infamous – male personages. Carol Ann Duffy is a master at drawing on myth and history, then subverting them in a vivid and surprising way to create poems that have the pull of the past and the crack of the contemporary.

At a glance