SEX IN MARRIAGE

By Ernest R. Groves '03 and Gladys Hoagland Groves. New York: Macaulay, 1931. 250 pages. There are at least two kinds of books written for the non-medical reader upon sex: first, good; second, not good. Of the second type there are two common varieties: one is scientific in form, too detailed, too redolent of pathology and over-illustrated by casehistories, a pseudo-medical treatise after all; while the other variety is over-imaginative, devoid of any truly scientific background, redolent, in its turn, of avoidance of issues, the promulgation of half-truths and of sentimentalism to the point of nausea. The latter of these is the worse and fortunately less common today.

The book, here reviewed, belongs to neither of these two varieties, commented upon, and this fact alone constitutes at the outset a strong recommendation in its favor. It is not a treatise for a medical specialist, it is not an attempt on the part of the authors to disguise something they feel should be disguised. It is a book on matters pertaining to sex, carefullythought out, engagingly presented, covering much ground without unnecessary detail and amply meeting the many problems of a sexual nature, which confront men and women in courtship and married life. It treats these problems with sound sympathy and a practical outlook. The writers are far from being didactic, they do not attempt to remake the social world, but sanely and with an emphasis neither too biologic nor too fanciful, they bring out the high possibilities of marriage. They clearly recognize the fact that sex is an important but not the sole factor in the process of adjustment of members of opposite sexes to each other.

The last chapter, an appraisal of marriage in its most comprehensive sense, of its meaning in the world of today and of its problems and difficulties, I find to be by far the most interesting of the book. It gives the spirit of sanity, understanding and breadth that pervades the whole book, and could profitably be read before and after the remainder of the book is perused.

High commendation should be given Professor and Mrs. Groves for their latest book on a subject, supposedly worn thrfeadbare, but actually not too wisely or comprehendingly treated in this class of literature.