The Eve of Saint Venus

The Eve of Saint Venus is a story or, as author Anthony Burgess (pen-name of John Burgess Wilson) put it, an "opusculum", on the theme of marriage. Originally conceived as a play in three acts in 1952, it was re-written as a novella after the author initially failed to find a theatre willing to stage the play. The novella was first published in 1964. The play version of the work premiered in 1979.