The Hungry Heart

"The Hungry Heart" by David Graham Phillips is a romance novel. Courtney Vaughan is madly in love with her husband Richard. However, when he neglects her for his chemistry work, she turns to her husband's partner and a homewrecker. When Richard learns that Courtney desires her freedom he divorces her, giving her custody of their little son. After separation, Richard returns to the home and asks permission to use the laboratory. He asks Courtney to assist him, which she does. Basil, learning that Courtney is free, returns to her only to be turned away… Excerpt: «Courtship and honeymoon of Richard Vaughan and Courtney Benedict are told accurately enough by a thousand chroniclers of love's fairy tales and dreams. Where such romances end in a rosily vague „And they lived happily ever after,“ there this history begins. Richard and Courtney have returned from Arcady to reality, to central Indiana and the Vaughan homestead, across the narrow width of Wenona the lake from Wenona the town.»