How to Be Good vs Man and Wife: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Married women, Marriage, Married people, Domestic fiction, Fiction
How to Be Good
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According to her own complex moral calculations, Katie Carr has earned her affair. She's a doctor and her husband David is the self-styled Angriest Man in Holloway. But when David suddenly becomes good - properly,…
Man and Wife
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On a summer's morning, between thirty and forty years ago, two girls were crying bitterly in the cabin of an East Indian passenger ship, bound outward, from Gravesend to Bombay.
Side by side
The verdict
- Readers rate Man and Wife highest: Man and Wife 3.9 · How to Be Good 3.2.
- How to Be Good is the quickest read — about 4 hours vs 7 for Man and Wife.
- How to Be Good has the widest readership — 58443 ratings behind its score.
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How to choose
Scores by source
| How to Be Good | Man and Wife | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 3.2 (58443) | 3.9 (1508) |
| Hardcover | 3.4 (78) | 2.0 (1) |
| Google Books | 3.0 (1) | — |
| Apple Books | 3.5 (46) | 5.0 (12) |
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Reception
| How to Be Good | Man and Wife | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 58443 | 1508 |
| Editions | 49 | 114 |
| Citations | — | 22 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | — | 2178 |
| Reading it now | — | 73 |
| Written reviews | — | 171 |
| Wikipedia attention | 689 | 331 |
| Pages | 258 | 423 |
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Questions readers ask
Which is rated higher: How to Be Good or Man and Wife?
Man and Wife has the higher combined reader rating across sources (Man and Wife 3.9/5, How to Be Good 3.2/5).
Which is shorter to read: How to Be Good or Man and Wife?
How to Be Good is the quickest read. Estimated at 225 words per minute: How to Be Good (258 pages, ≈ 4 h 47 m); Man and Wife (423 pages, ≈ 7 h 50 m).
Which is harder to read: How to Be Good or Man and Wife?
Estimated difficulty, based on era, reader shelves and length — How to Be Good: Light; Man and Wife: Challenging.