Scenes from Married Life (1961) was written as the third installment, but published as the second volume in William Cooper's 5-volume fictionalized (auto-)biographical novel series, after the second installment was suppressed, and subsequently published in 1982.

The "missing" volume does not hinder the reading and understanding of the continued story. In part 1 of Scenes from Married Life Joe says that he has no intention of marrying Sybil after fifteen years (p.245). His unwillingness to try to understand Sybil demonstrates his disinterestedness in having anything else but a sexual relationship without any attachments. Being still unmarried, the reader can fill in the blanks themselves, and draw the conclusion that Joe must have ditched Myrtle, his girl in the first volume of the series Scenes from Provincial Life most likely in the same way. This attitude seems shared by his friend Robert, who cares very little for his girlfriend Annette.

Joe is now a somewhat more successful author, with a novel coming out, but still lacking in a true sense of responsibility. He now works as a civil servant, but money is still tight, and works on a new novel in his free time. He is now married to Elspeth, and a certain dullness creeps in. The description of "the morning after" the marriage, with its concealed implication of the consummation of marriage is exemplary of the anti-climax experience of Joe as a voracious but now tamed womanizer. The rest of the novel is divided between problems surrounding the new novel as danger of a law suit which might be brought forward if it is published over scenes which could be understood as rape, and difficulties at work.

The problems with the novel referred to in the story probably refer to the suppression of volume two in the series, but are as such difficult for the reader to understand. Scenes from Married Life lacks the crispness of the previous volume, Scenes from Provincial Life, mainly because Robert is a much less interesting character than Tom. While Scenes from Provincial Life sparkled with sarcasm, Scenes from Married Life seems a rather dull affair. ( )