Envy

Part of a series of highly entertaining books on the history of sinning. While each of the other six deadly sins area a guilty pleasure, 'the green-eyed monster', as it is often called, is no fun. Jacob Epstein considers what the experts have written about envy, schadenfreude, and resentment, and how it operates under different political systems. Why is it so powerful that it can so easily overpower sense and caution? Could it ever be wiped from the map of humankind's nastier emotions? The author bravely offers his own experiences of envy, and his prescription for removing it from one's psychic economy. This is a refreshingly honest and very entertaining account of a very old sin.