The really great novel tends to be the exact negative of its author's life.
Housekeeping in common is for women the acid test.
People are what you make them. A scornful look turns into a complete fool a man of average intelligence. A contemptuous indifference turns into an enemy a woman who, well treated, might have been an angel.
Modesty and unselfishness - these are the virtues which men praise - and pass by.
Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us.
We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity - romantic love and gunpowder.