"The Cinderella tale, so simple and so profound, offers a direct road into and through the thickets of envying and being envied. Envy between sisters, between mothers and daughters, between the sexes, between nations ... between different parts of our own psyche, even of God -- these are the multiple places of wounding we touch in this book. The central role of envy in determining the very nature of our society -- its politics, for example -- is, we think, crucial."
After considering this rarely discussed human emotion, the authors focus on the nature of goodness as it surfaces in the envy experience. They reflect on its abundance, ability to unite disparate parts, its abiding presence, and its joy, then conclude with a glossary of terms and a brief review of the psychological literature on envy.