Dutourd, Jean. The Horrors of Love (Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday, 1967) 665 p. Translated from the French by Robin Chancellor. Originally published as Les Horreurs de L’amour (Paris: Gallimard, 1963).

Two friends discuss a womanizing mutual friend, Roberti. One of his affairs is with Odile who worked in a library. “Extremely well turned out. Immaculate hands and glossy hair. She must have been about twenty-eight or thirty. Semi-intellectual, very taken up with the things it was smart to admire. A progressive, as should be. Which didn’t prevent her from being flattered by the attentions of a Radical deputy. For her, too, Roberti was a rarity. Her collection consisted mainly of painters without talent, journalists and (fitfully) university students.” (p. 90). Odile jilts Roberti and marries another man.