Introduction
A major network television "talk show" recently dedicated a full hour to the troublesome question of wife-swapping. Some of America's best-known authorities were called upon to pass judgment and give their opinions on this controversial subject. As the discussion progressed, one important fact became more and more evident: no one, not even the famed sociologists, could accurately gauge just how prevalent the practice of wife-swapping is in the United States today.
Also appearing on the program's panel were several couples who are active in swinging or wife-swapping clubs. One of these couples consisted of author Marshall Roberts and his lovely, tall, Nordic wife. (Marshall Roberts, of course, is actually the pseudonym of a best-selling novelist whose hardcover books are frequent book club selections, and whose last book for Dansk was the gratifyingly successful The Blackmailed Housewife.)
What seemed to tickle both the studio audience and the critics most about Mr. Roberts' candid opinions was the fact that he had thoroughly researched the subject and could quote famous historical leaders, religious dignitaries, and writers from antiquity to the presentmany of whom advocated a little swapping now and then.
It was Benjamin Franklin, Mr. Roberts pointed out, who wrote, "Ah... that wives were almanacks and we could but change them every year."
After several other similarly delightful quotations in favor of swapping, however, Mr. Roberts hastened to add that the subject is neither entirely one-sided nor all that simple. Dr. Ner Littner, medical director of the child-therapy program at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, for instance, has concluded that the wife-swapper is one who, unable to maintain an intimate relationship with his partner, "... builds into his marriage a distancing device. Wife-swapping is a safety valve that keeps intimacy between the two at a level each can tolerate."
Dipping further into his prodigiously retentive memory, Mr. Roberts also quoted Gilbert D. Bartell, Ph.D., author of a volume called Group Sex, as follows: "The bulk of our work will support the thesis that white middle-class males involve themselves and their partners in swinging to act out male sexual needs that are largely based on fantasies retained from adolescence.... For the female, swinging represents the fulfillment of the social-romantic demands that she makes upon her mate. And for both it represents a compromise that has become available within the American culture..."
Finally, Mr. Roberts quoted from a book entitled More Sex Swappers by researcher Sybil Sainte-Claire: "Many authorities see the entire sub-culture of mate-swapping as a playan acting out of fantasies by both partners. Whether or not this is neurotic or deviant has not yet been fully decided. Perhaps those dark questions will not ever be resolved for the public. Of those interviewed by this author, most, if not all, began swinging by going to bed with close friends within an arrangement mutually agreed upon or meeting a couple with a strong physical attraction and either seducing or being seduced by them."
In any event, it is not our duty as publishers to settle such debates but to give the public the best books we can possibly find or initiate. As soon as the television panel show was over, we got on the telephone and asked Mr. Roberts to do a book about wife-swapping for us. He agreed, and we are happy to present, for your reading enjoyment and edification, A Bride for Torment. We think that this novel may very well be one of the most accurate (and entertaining) ever written about husbands and wives who trade off partners.
Here, in A Bride for Torment, the very clear delights and dangers of wife-swapping are graphically portrayed. Mr. Roberts candidly admits that much of the material contained herein is autobiographical.
After reading this book, we think you will agree with the noted sociologists who claim that swapping is now as much a part of the American scene as apple pie. We think you will see that swingingfor some couplescan be an extremely perilous pastime, ripping apart the fragile fabric of their marriages and having tragic results. Yet it cannot be denied that a great many marriage counselors actually encourage the practice for some couples.
Because wife-swapping cuts across generation and cultural lines, we feel this book is an important contribution to the literature available about the subject. We do, at the same time, feel we must warn our readers that some of the scenes are graphic and the language explicit. If this were not so, the book would be worthless as far as sociological studies are concerned. We are pleased to place in your hands, as usual, an extremely worthwhile book.
-The Publishers North Hollywood, Cal. September, 1971