Married Love

Married Love or Love in Marriage is a book by British academic Marie Stopes. It was one of the first books openly to discuss birth control. The book begins by stating that "More than ever to-day are happy homes needed. It is my hope that this book may serve the State by adding to their number. Its object is to increase the joys of marriage, and to show how much sorrow may be avoided." The preface states that it was geared toward teaching married couples how to have a happy marriage, including 'great sex' – and it was thus offering a service to 'the State' by reducing the number of people affected by failed marriages. The central question is how can the "desire for freedom" and "physical and mental exploration" be balanced with the limits of monogamy and raising a family. The answer is not "in the freedom to wander at will" but a "full and perfected love". In Stopes' vocabulary, love means sex and "access to the knowledge of how to cultivate it".