--- product_id: 12163180 title: "The World's Wife: Poems" price: "₨476" currency: SCR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.sc/products/12163180-the-worlds-wife-poems store_origin: SC region: Seychelles --- # The World's Wife: Poems **Price:** ₨476 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The World's Wife: Poems - **How much does it cost?** ₨476 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sc](https://www.desertcart.sc/products/12163180-the-worlds-wife-poems) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Be terrified. It's you I love, perfect man, Greek God, my own; but I know you'll go, betray me, stray from home. So better by far for me if you were stone. --from "Medusa" Stunningly original and haunting, the voices of Mrs. Midas, Queen Kong, and Frau Freud, to say nothing of the Devil's Wife herself, startle us with their wit, imagination, and incisiveness in this collection of poems written from the perspectives of the wives, sisters, or girlfris of famous -- and infamous -- male personages. Carol Ann Duffy is a master at drawing on myth and history, then subverting them in a vivid and surprising way to create poems that have the pull of the past and the crack of the contemporary. Review: A mic drop from history's silent women - One of our teachers handed a copy of The World’s Wife to a student like it was a banned book. That student passed it to me with the same energy someone uses when sharing a playlist that might unlock your soul. Spoiler: it kinda did. This book is a collection of poems and stories told from the women behind the legends — wives, lovers, mythic icons, and goddesses who are done being background characters. You’ll hear from Medusa, Eurydice, Queen Herod, Mrs. Midas, and a whole crew of women with razor-sharp wit and zero time for being silenced. The tone? Think Shakespeare meets feminist Twitter with a literary twist. It’s the kind of book you leave out to provoke conversations and low-key judge your guests’ taste. If they get it, they stay. If they don’t, that’s your cue. Highly recommend for readers who like their poetry with punchlines and power plays. Review: Female gaze - This book is the running definition of ‘female gaze’ in literature. Duffy takes stories like the raising of Lazarus, or the fall of Icarus, or even Shakespeare’s bestowment of his ‘second best bed’ to his wife, and retells them from a female perspective. In other poems, she transforms male-oriented stories to female: Pope Joan and Queen Kong being examples. And within this premise, she examines the one-sided puritanical attitudes of relationships, the demonization of female biology, and strikes at the literary patriarchy with humor and devastating seriousness. This is a lovely collection that wisely avoids striking the same note over and over but instead varies from control (ie, Eurydice WANTING Orpheus to turn and look and free her), to sexuality (Little Red Riding Hood as sexual awakening) to a dismay at the male animal (Sisyphus’s wife agog at her husband’s persistence). Quite the collection. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #54,802 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #57 in British & Irish Poetry #856 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction | | Customer Reviews | 4.5 out of 5 stars 859 Reviews | ## Images ![The World's Wife: Poems - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71azxHf6RrL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A mic drop from history's silent women *by M***A on June 6, 2025* One of our teachers handed a copy of The World’s Wife to a student like it was a banned book. That student passed it to me with the same energy someone uses when sharing a playlist that might unlock your soul. Spoiler: it kinda did. This book is a collection of poems and stories told from the women behind the legends — wives, lovers, mythic icons, and goddesses who are done being background characters. You’ll hear from Medusa, Eurydice, Queen Herod, Mrs. Midas, and a whole crew of women with razor-sharp wit and zero time for being silenced. The tone? Think Shakespeare meets feminist Twitter with a literary twist. It’s the kind of book you leave out to provoke conversations and low-key judge your guests’ taste. If they get it, they stay. If they don’t, that’s your cue. Highly recommend for readers who like their poetry with punchlines and power plays. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Female gaze *by R***S on July 3, 2019* This book is the running definition of ‘female gaze’ in literature. Duffy takes stories like the raising of Lazarus, or the fall of Icarus, or even Shakespeare’s bestowment of his ‘second best bed’ to his wife, and retells them from a female perspective. In other poems, she transforms male-oriented stories to female: Pope Joan and Queen Kong being examples. And within this premise, she examines the one-sided puritanical attitudes of relationships, the demonization of female biology, and strikes at the literary patriarchy with humor and devastating seriousness. This is a lovely collection that wisely avoids striking the same note over and over but instead varies from control (ie, Eurydice WANTING Orpheus to turn and look and free her), to sexuality (Little Red Riding Hood as sexual awakening) to a dismay at the male animal (Sisyphus’s wife agog at her husband’s persistence). Quite the collection. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Four Stars *by M***R on June 7, 2016* Carol Ann Duffy's poetry is provocative and entertaining. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.sc/products/12163180-the-worlds-wife-poems](https://www.desertcart.sc/products/12163180-the-worlds-wife-poems) --- *Product available on Desertcart Seychelles* *Store origin: SC* *Last updated: 2026-08-17*