The Wives of Bath is a novel by Susan Swan, inspired by her own childhood experiences at Havergal College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
In Swan's own words, "... the teachers and matrons of the boarding school remind [Mouse] of Chaucer's Wife of Bath because they are the only women she has met who live by their own rules.
Mouse recalls how she was sent to the boarding school in Toronto- Bath Ladies' College- because her father had "an unfortunate inferiority complex about bringing up females" and because its headmistress, Vera Vaughan, was a distant cousin of Morley's.
Mouse is nervous, keenly aware of her shyness and her physical shortcomings, and is bewildered by the strange atmosphere of the old-fashioned school.
She meets the friendly janitor, Sergeant (who is a dwarf), and Paulie's brother, Lewis, whom she later catches shaving in her new dorm bathroom.
To both Mouse and Paulie's chagrin, Tory breaks her leg in a field hockey accident and is sent home for the rest of the winter term.
The two form a kind of bond, and Paulie soon reveals to Mouse that she doesn't have a brother named Lewis; it is actually her, masquerading as a boy, and that she has everyone fooled, even Tory.
These include: eating six bowls of tapioca pudding without vomiting, letting a match burn to the skin without crying, and managing to urinate whilst standing up.
Mouse is devastated by the news of the President's death, but is cheered by letters from Jack O'Malley, a King's College student she met at the Luncheon.
After performing in the Christmas show, Mouse is summoned to Miss Vaughan's office, where she is told that Morley has died from a sudden heart attack.
Miss Vaughan attends the funeral, bringing Paulie, who tells Mouse that Rick is trying to stop Tory from seeing Lewis.
Toward the end of the evening, Mouse breaks away and searches for Paulie, finally finding her in the tower washroom, her hair shorn and her face cut and bleeding.
Mouse's adoration of her father, Morley, and her idolization of John F. Kennedy suggests that she, like Paulie, longs for the freedom and status of becoming a man.
Paulie resents the status females have been given by society, and constantly challenges one to consider exactly what it is that makes a man characteristically 'masculine', (i.e. strong, self-assured, and resourceful).
Mouse questions, toward the end of the novel, whether Tory was aware that Lewis and Paulie were the same person; there is evidence for both arguments, but the intensity of their relationship suggests that she was.
The Wives of Bath was made into the independent film Lost and Delirious in 2001, directed by Léa Pool and adapted for the screen by Judith Thompson.
The Film stars Piper Perabo as Paulie, Jessica Paré as Tory, and a young Mischa Barton as Mouse.
Susan Swan has recently written a foreword for the new edition of The Wives of Bath praising Lost and Delirious, though she states that it is, superficially, "vastly different" from the original novel.
The last names of the main characters differ in Lost and Delirious to those in The Wives of Bath; Paulie's was changed from "Sykes" to "Oster"; Tory's from "Quinn" to "Moller"; and Mouse's from "Bradford" to "Bedford".
The murder that serves as the dénouement for the story was not included in the Lost and Delirious screenplay by Judith Thompson, who felt that the grotesque nature of Paulie's crime would not translate properly on-screen.