A severed head ([New ed.])

Martin Lynch-Gibbon believes he can possess both a beautiful wife and a delightful lover.

But when his wife, Antonia, suddenly leaves him for her psychoanalyst, Martin is plunged into an intensive emotional re-education.

He attempts to behave beautifully and sensibly. Then he meets a woman whose demonic splendour at first repels him and later arouses a consuming and monstrous passion.

As his Medusa informs him, 'this is nothing to do with happiness'.