I'm still trying to get through the pre-1700s, since as I've mentioned before, I'm really not a fan of these. I haven't had one in this category thus far that I have liked, and generally they just bore me or upset me. So, for book 383 in this project, I decided to read Chaireas and Kallirhoe.
I feel pretty safe in spoiling this one, since let's be honest, you weren't going to read it anyway. Essentially, it is about this couple, Chaireas and Kallirhoe. Kallirhoe is the most beautiful woman in the world (woohoo?), and because of this lots of people want to get with her, so they convince Chaireas that she's cheating on him. Chaireas, level-headed dude that he is, beats Kallirhoe till he thinks she's dead. She isn't dead, but whilst entombed is kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave. The rest of the story is about them finding their way back to each other and eventually reunited to live happily ever after. Indeed.
One could, I suppose, attempt to read this as sort of a complicated treatise on the cycle of abuse and the reasons women return to abusive intimate partners. But again, let's be honest here, that's not what this is really about. I'm not inclined to read this ahistorically, so I'm just frustrated.
To be fair, I did not pick the best time in my life to read this one. I'm in one of those phases where I have to actively try to not see the vast majority of men as abusers or potential abusers with only extremely rare exceptions who aren't. I hate this about myself, but it happens sometimes. I'm starting to learn, slowly, that denying this doesn't help, and I just have to work through it. Still, I definitely flinched when random dude on the metro sat next to me and tried to start up a conversation. Could not handle it.
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