Pretty Tales for Tired People
The companion collection seven years later, and gathered into the same omnibus.
Read our take
Two by Two
Four long stories about marriage, each one titled from a promise made at the altar.
- 1958
- 246
About Martha Gellhorn
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freePublished in 1958, this is the tightest of Gellhorn's story collections: four long stories about couples, organised by a device she takes from the marriage service, so that each borrowed vow is tested against a situation the ceremony never anticipated. The settings move between Europe and America and the tone is worldly rather than bitter. She is interested in what holds two people together after the reason for it has gone.
The story, in more detail
Four novellas titled in order from the marriage service: For Better for Worse, For Richer for Poorer, In Sickness and in Health, and Till Death Us Do Part. The cast is professional and mobile — politicians, journalists, war photographers — and the pressures are money, ambition, illness and work rather than romance.
For Richer for Poorer is the comedy of manners, built on Rose Answell, who has spent ten years pushing her husband up the political ladder. In Sickness and in Health is the grim one, a triangle around Annette, who has had heart disease for years. Till Death Us Do Part holds the only marriage in the book with real promise, between the war photographer Bara and Suzy, and the war destroys it. For Better for Worse opens the sequence; its couple cannot be identified here, because it is the one story of the four that the record has almost nothing to say about.
Themes and analysis
The anniversary brooch
In the original magazine version, The Smell of Lilies, James’s careful fastening of Annette’s brooch looks tender, while his private thoughts expose exhaustion. The gap between gesture and thought makes the gift ambiguous: it sustains her happiness while concealing how far their lives have separated. Its expense also reaches beyond this room. Money spent reassuring Annette cannot support James’s life with Maggie. The brooch connects the two relationships he tries to keep apart, making generosity toward one woman inseparable from a cost to the other.
Returning the catch
In that same magazine version, Maggie’s release of the fish is an immediate response to visible suffering. The brief holiday makes care look simple: she can undo the hurt she has just caused. Later, James cannot find an equally harmless way out of his divided life. His final decision to leave Maggie may be read as another attempt to release someone, but without the fish’s clear escape. Gellhorn ends with packing, not reunion, leaving the consequences of this protective gesture unresolved.
Why we recommend it
The most shapely book she wrote
Four stories, one device, no padding. The structure does real work rather than decorating the contents page.
Gellhorn away from the war
No dispatches, no correspondents. Marriage, money, illness and class, handled by someone who had reported harder things.
Findable, unlike the rest
The omnibus editions keep all four stories in print, which is more than can be said for The Honeyed Peace.
What this book explores
Timeline
1958
Simon & Schuster publishes the four marriage stories, with a UK edition from Longmans, Green the same year — written in Gellhorn's forties, after the Hemingway marriage.
1991
All four are gathered into The Short Novels of Martha Gellhorn, from Sinclair-Stevenson.
1994
The omnibus reaches America as The Novellas of Martha Gellhorn, from Vintage.
Book editions
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- Simon & Schuster
- 1958
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- Longmans, Green
- 1958
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- Sinclair-Stevenson
- 1991
- Paperback
- Vintage
- 1994
- 9780679743699
Reader reviews
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Two by Two: frequently asked questions
Who wrote Two by Two?
Martha Gellhorn. The collection was published in 1958.
What is Two by Two?
Four long stories about couples, each titled from a line of the marriage service — For Better for Worse, For Richer for Poorer, In Sickness and in Health — and each testing that vow against a situation the ceremony never anticipated.
What is the organizing device?
The vows of the marriage service, borrowed as titles and pressed against real marriages under strain.
Where is it set?
Its settings move across Europe and beyond, following each couple to where its story lives.
What kind of book is it?
The tightest of Gellhorn's story collections — four novellas on marriage.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document Two by Two, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1Martha Gellhorn: A Life
BiographyCaroline Moorehead, 2003Used forUsed to verify Two by Two's bibliographic context and its place within Martha Gellhorn's published work.
2Martha Gellhorn — War Correspondent and Writer | Blue Plaques
WebsiteEnglish HeritageUsed forUsed for independent archival, institutional, or historical context surrounding Martha Gellhorn and Two by Two.
3Ernest Hemingway Collection — Martha Gellhorn (Hemingway) | EH@JFK, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library
WebsiteJohn F. Kennedy Presidential Library and MuseumUsed forUsed to cross-check chronology, publication history, and the circumstances in which Two by Two appeared.
4Martha Gellhorn | Historic Missourians
WebsiteThe State Historical Society of MissouriUsed forUsed for an additional scholarly or biographical perspective on Two by Two and Martha Gellhorn's wider career.
5The Smell of Lilies — part one
PeriodicalThe Atlantic Monthly, August 1956, 1956Used forOriginal magazine version, read on the publisher’s website; not collated against the collected text.
6The Smell of Lilies — part two
PeriodicalThe Atlantic Monthly, August 1956, 1956Used forSecond part of the complete magazine story; the comparison between scenes is an interpretation.
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Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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