Art of the Insult, pt. 2

This, from Maugham’s great novel, The Painted Veil, reflects a husband’s frustration toward his wife’s philandering. His turning on her is more shocking because he has been so quietly devoted to her the whole time that she hardly knew that he was capable of such a malicious tongue. I think you can agree it is one of the great insults of all time: “I had no illusions about you,” he said. "I knew you were silly and frivolous and empty-headed. But I loved you. I knew that your aims and ideals were vulgar and commonplace. But I loved you. I knew that you were second-rate. It’s comic when I think how hard I tried to be amused by the things that amused you and how anxious I was to hide from you that I wasn’t ignorant, and vulgar, and scandal-mongering, and stupid. I knew how frightened you were of intelligence and I did everything I could to make you think me as big a fool as the rest of men you knew.” Someone's sleeping on the couch tonight!