Books: Anatomy of Jealousy

THE BODY (215 pp.)—William Sansom—Harcourt, Brace ($2.75).

From the garden of his London house, Henry Bishop peered at the red-faced stranger in the yard next door. The man was staring straight up at the bathroom where Bishop's wife was making splashing sounds in the wash basin; suddenly he burst into a clumsy dance of delight and blew a kiss to the window.

Henry Bishop, a middle-aged shopkeeper, trembled with shock. Was that kiss the first? Had Madge encouraged it, had she smiled back at the man? A muddled rush of feeling seized him: pity for himself as a rejected husband, envy of the...