The Single Woman and the Fairytale Prince

FOREWORD TO THE NEW EDITION

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE: IS THERE A MODEL FOR PRIVATE LIFE?

1. LIVING ALONE: A LONG HISTORY

Intolerable Celibacy

Great Buffalo Woman

Celibacy Becomes Legitimate

A Maid in Men’s Clothes

Introspection

The World Turned Upside Down

The Nineteenth Century: The Main Trend Begins

Grisettes and Phalansteries

The Break

Dark Times

The American Model

The Scandinavian Model

Crazy Times

Uncertain Times

2. A LIFE DIVIDED

The ‘Accusing Finger’

‘Weird’

Uncomfortable Places

The Family: What Can Be Said and What Cannot Be Said

The Laughter of Girlfriends

Betrayal

A Cycle in Three Stages

3. A LIFE SHARED

Back to History

Premonitory Experiments

The Personalization of Feelings

A Model for Private Life

The Mother-Children Group

The Model Undermined

4. PRINCE OR HUSBAND?

Facts and Fairies

The Prince with a Thousand Faces

‘Like a Love Story’

The Prince Settles Down

When the Carriage Turns Back into a Pumpkin

The Prince Plays Musical Chairs

PART TWO: PORTRAIT OF A SINGLE WOMAN

5. INTROSPECTION

‘The Disease of the Infinite’

From Laughter to Tears

Double Reflexivity

From Diaries to Blogs

The Mirror and the Clairvoyant

6. AT HOME

Fixtures and Fittings

Bed

Meals

Wrapping Up and Regressing

Freedom from Domesticity

The Lightness of Being

7. THE OUTSIDE WORLD

Going Out

Other Ties

The Family

Work

Being Oneself in the Outside World

8. MEN

Arms

Sex

Man-Hunters

A Gloomy View of Life

Married Men

9. THE INTERNET REVOLUTION

A Sudden Change of Epoch

Love is Just a Click Away

The Dark Side of the Web

Real Life

Men and Women: Sex and Commitment

‘Don’t Give Up’

An Experience in its Own Right

PART THREE: THE AUTONOMY TRAJECTORY

10. BEING ONESELF

The Concept of Trajectory

The Irresistible Injunction to be Oneself

Oneself

Widows

Young People

Women Who Have Broken off Relationships

Predisposing Factors

The Impulse to Remain Single

The Lesser of Two Evils

Two Trajectories, Two Identities

11. WAITING

Dinosaurs of Love and Galloping Horses

The Ravages of Love

For Want of an Alternative

Sentenced to Hard Labour

Comforting Habits

Extreme Isolation

Negative Individualism

12. ‘WOMEN CAN DO ANYTHING!

Flight as Therapy

The Logic of the Shell

The Paradox of Appearances

Women Can Do Anything

Autonomy with Company

CONCLUSION

EPILOGUE

DOSSIER. THE GLOBALIZATION OF SINGLEDOM: THE FIGURES

The Irresistible Rise in the Number of One-Person Households

Interpreting the Figures

Late Marriage

A Short World Tour

Mail-Order Brides

A NOTE ON METHODOLOGY

Stages in the Research

The Letters

Constructing Hypotheses

The Informants

BIBLIOGRAPHY