Customer Reviews

Three in Love: Menages a Trois from Ancient to Modern Times

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Little did i know when I bought three in love, on a lark, that this book would revolutionize my conception of the menage a trois--a subject normally winked at. This provocative book examines the menage from a unique, scholarly perspective while being a super fun read. The numbers of powerful people involved in menages are staggering, from Joseph Goebbels to FDR to Greta Garbo to the Rolling Stones. A fascinating narrative, it deals superbly with our last taboo taking a fresh, elegant
look at the influence of menages on literature, art film and politics. Between the profound scholarship and crisp writing Three is difficult to put down. Particularly because of interspersed titillating, sections which provide a peek into the authors own menage. Three is singularly compelling, a must for inquiring readers open to expanding their intellectual horizons vis a vis the possibilities of human sexual relationships.

Not a book for voyeurs, but a genuine study of menages a troi in history, this has become one of my indispensable books. The most memorable part of the book involves the Bloomsbury Group, the complex dance of couplings and uncouplings (or should it be triplings and untriplings?) involving John Maynard Keynes, Virginia Woolfe, Dora Carrington, Lytton Strachy and others in the early part of the last century.

Like any good love story (or collection of love stories), this is an exploration of relationships, not a catalog of sexual exploits. Why are threesomes so popular throughout history? Are some people really better off in a triad than alone or in a duo, and why? What famous figures in art, literature and philosophy seemed to need to be in a triad to be creative? This book looks at these questions, and others.

Foster, Foster and Hadady write in a captivating, easy-going style that's more like story-telling than biography. The book is thoroughly enjoyable.

I bought this book the moment it was published since the topic is of some immediate interest in my life. I was not disappointed. In fact it has become one of the most-quoted books around our dinner table because so many people whose actions and opinions have shaped our world have found their emotional comfort outside traditional monogamy. Three In Love is a delightful stroll through the history of threes, well researched and written as a labor of love by a real-life triad. It succeeds on many levels: as a rough guide to the lives of the triadic and famous, as a treatise on the incredible creative (or sometimes destructive) power of three, as a laudable effort to reclaim the term menage a trois (literally "household of three") from the tawdry usage into which it has slipped. While its style may be just a bit dry at times, the sheer volume of its subjects makes it a must-read. It's great to have this particular collection of facts to know and share. No triad's book collection is complete without it.

THREE IN LOVE is a highly entertaining, well researched, and beautifully written study of successful threesomes. The book makes for lively bedside reading. You will be disappointed if you want trash. Take it to heart--not to the bathroom. I loved finding so many famous, talented people who have opted for the 3 lifestyle. Judging from the authors' website threeinlove.com poly relationships may be the next major outing from the closet. Three cheers!

It is so nice to see a book written by a poly triad. The book itself is full of stories about historical figures and their "Ménages a Trois" and how they lived their lives, both successfully and not so successfully. The tragedies and victories are romantically told one after another. The history geek in me would have liked footnotes or endnotes so I could read additional information about each triad.

I recommend "Three In Love" to readers like myself. Readers intrigued by all caring and sharing ways to express love in life.
Three in Love is a who's who of menage history. Its a merry romp down menage a' trois lane with the rich and famous of history who lived and loved in threes.
From Adam and Eve and the Snake,to Dracula and Lucy's saviors, to Heinreid, Bergman, and Bogart, you will learn who shared their hearts,lives, and beds with two others.
Reading Three In Love I was entertained,stimulated,and enlightened on the subject.
If you enterain personal curiosity about famous people who shared both love and lives in threes. Your curiosity will be satisfied by reading Three In Love authored by Barbara and Michael Foster with their partner in love Letha Hadady, authors who have firsthand knowledge of the pleasure of love with two others.
Three In Love is a serious fun read, I heartily recommend it to the adventurous reader.
Three In Love makes loves in threes seem pleasurably plausible to me. What a happy way to be.

This book is only haphazardly a history of the ménage à trois and very rarely about three in love. Unfortunately, it isn't at all what the poorly understood realm of ménage sociology needs. At its best, "Three in Love" details a few threesomes--many of them notably centered on two men and a woman--who might have truly been threesomes but who nonetheless invariably seem to disintegrate in tragedy. At its worst, "Three in Love" gives us some of the bleakest examples of relationship behavior: fickleness, inconstancy, jealousy, betrayal, et cetera. Three in love should be just that: three in love (not three in manipulation, or three in betrayal, or three in scornfulness). Where are the examples of warm triads? Of real people trying to make it work, failing and succeeding in their own ways? Three can be such a beautiful number. There is a noteworthy minority of ménages out here in the world, and certainly the subject matter is difficult to place under scrutiny, but hasn't anyone with guts, integrity, consistency, and some scientific acumen shined any light on the potential beauty of the ménage? Such a work might be out there somewhere, but this one isn't it. If you read it, read it knowing that you'll be reading very little about love.

A rather interesting and fun read concerning historic and contemporary multiples in the bedroom. An engaging mix of historic perspective, titilation and social commentary. If you're in the mood for some non-fiction sexuality, give this one a try.

Three In Love has been called a well researched history and that it seems to be. There was endless name dropping of who did who. Not being a historian, I had no idea who most of these people were and the authors neglected to tell me. That made the book very tedious. Moreover there was too much fact and not enough understanding. I found myself thirsting for insight. The few precious times the authors did discuss the emotional process involved it seemed rushed and brief.

This book is really miss-titled. It was only rarely about love. The menage a trois described were consistently tragic. They neatly fit the conventional view of a threesome as an immeshed, jealous, mess. Most often they were a maladjustment to one person's reckless promiscuity, or a someone's projection of their own obsessions, or at best, an adaptation to one partner's physical or emotional impotency. I was not left with a single story of enduring success. In short, I wouldn't want to be anyone in this book. It adds up to a real good argument to the point that a healthy menage a trois is impossible.

Ironically the best part of the book was the introduction, where the authors own family of three was described as warm and stable. We saw their yearning for recognition of this life choice. Those who live this lifestyle need a standard bearer. They need a book to leave conspicuously on the desk at work, or to give to others to say "This is what I'm about" Unfortunately this is not it. There are no good role models here.

If you took 3 alternative academics, mixed in poor research gathering, & an overdose of an Attention Deficit Disorder inducing drug - this is a book you might end up with.

Before you think that I'm jaded against the subject matter, let me say I usually only review books that I encourage people to read & consider. But I make an exception here because I do genuinely care about the subject matter. And I wanted this book to be something completely different than it turned out to be.

I would really enjoy reading a book about the close familial difficulties, trials, and successes of multi-partner relationships, but this book ain't that. If you're looking for a book to give some uncommon perspective on people who succeed in this lifestyle; unfortunately, this isn't it.

The authors have actually been in a long term menage a trois where they have different kinds of love for each other. I've listened to a couple interviews of the 3 authors, and they speak in similar patterns to how they write: faster than normal, a little anxious, and never very long on one topic. Reading this book is kind of like watching TV with a eleven year old boy who keeps changing channels every 2 minutes.

But enough criticism. I write this review to encourage the authors (or different authors) to write a book with fewer, but more relaxed and extensive narratives on the complexities, politics, and balancing involved in real triad relationships.

Buy, borrow, or bypass? Unfortunately, bypass.