"From Anna Karenina to Fatal Attraction: Ashley Madison’s new twist on a very old tale"

"The data breach at the Ashley Madison website for people pursuing extramarital affairs is just a new twist on a very old tale. Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary and Lady Chatterley’s Lover may be among the most famous modern works which turn on a character’s adultery but the conflict between individual desire and social responsibility, sexual urges and emotional loyalty, is age-old, a recurring subject in both the Bible and the Classics..."

Adultery has been a fact of life and a recurring theme since Clytemnestra made hay with Aegisthus, while her husband Agamemnon was doing Trojan work elsewhere. What do you mean, you haven’t read Aeschylus’s Oresteia?

Even the Bible is not immune, starting with Abraham himself. Drop the Good Book and as like as not, it will fall open at such juicy passages as David and Bathsheba, or Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, who, failing to to seduce him, falsely accuses him of attempted rape. Another case prompted Jesus to utter the famous judgment: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”.

Adultery has also been part of cinema’s stock in trade from its early days. The IMDB database lists 270 French titles alone (who'd have thought it?) with it as a theme, from And God Created Woman (1956) through The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) to Romance (1999).

Here then is a potted history of adultery on screen and page. (Click here for the list)