Brak bez ljubavi

Marriage Without Love is a psychological novel by French author Claude Fervel published in Croatian translation in 1942 during the Independent State of Croatia. The work belongs to the classic bourgeois prose of the interwar period.

The plot focuses on spouses living in a formal, but emotionally empty marriage concluded out of interest and social conformity. The author subtly analyzes everyday alienation, repressed frustrations, boredom and silent dramas that slowly destroy the relationship. The emphasis is on the internal monologues and psychological states of the characters, rather than on external plots.

Fervel's style is clear, realistic and accessible, typically French for that era – with an emphasis on the subtle analysis of marital crisis, changing gender roles and the hypocrisy of bourgeois society. The novel belongs to the type of literature that was popular among a wider readership at that time because it dealt with universal themes of marital unhappiness and emotional loneliness.