Marriage Is the Devil's Playhouse

Book excerpt: This is not a book to be taken lightly, nor is it intended to be sensational. It is a serious result of three decades of painful soul-searching. Neither is the book to be considered disparaging of the institution of marriage. In many ways, it can be regarded as a psychological study of domestic abuse. In a graceful and sometimes humorous manner, Ms. Stone shares her life experiences with the reader so as to give a realistic insight into those horrendous experiences of abuse, which society in general prefers to regard as "behind closed doors" matters. The author apologizes for passages that the reader might consider indecent or obscene. This subject is an ugly and shameful part of our nation's heritage; and those accounts are needed to stress the obligation for changes. Ms. Stone realizes that the problems of this question of marriage lie in the grey morass of the conflicts of STATE and CHURCH. She feels that if ever we are to have stable family lives our representatives for study in this area must become more realistic, become more enlightened, and have the cooperation of the press and public.