The One with Don'ts for Husbands

184. Title & Author: Don’ts for Husbands by Blanche Ebbutt (73 pages)

Genre: Nonfiction—Marriage & Relationships

Completed: 10 May 2011

Summary & Review:

It was recently our fourth wedding anniversary, and my wife gave me this little book as a cheeky present. It was written in 1913 and is part of a pair, the other book being Don’ts for Wives (I know what she is getting for our anniversary next year!). It is filled with little maxims of advice for husbands, all of which start with the stern, unyielding command of “Don’t.”

Many of the tidbits were quite funny, like: “Don’t be conceited about your good looks. It is more than probable that no one but yourself is aware of them.” Or, “Don’t inflict your company on your wife during every minute of every day.”

Others were slightly outdated and just didn’t apply due to the passage of time and changes in customs, and others didn’t apply because I know my wife would disagree with the advice. For example: “Don’t hesitate to talk politics with your wife.” Nothing is able to put my wife into a comatose state more quickly than when I begin to wax political.

What surprised me about this little book was the amount of advice that was still very valuable, even though it has been almost a century since this book was published. Some examples of these wise words were, “Don’t hesitate to mention the fact when your wife looks especially nice. Your thinking so can give her no pleasure unless you tell your thought.” “Don’t think you can live your lives apart under the same roof and still be happy. Marriage is a joint affair, and cannot comfortably be worked along separate lines.” And finally, “Don’t forget to be your wife’s best friend as well as her husband. True friendship in marriage does away with all sorts of trouble.”

Rating: 7.0