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9781398108943

Decadent Divorce Scandal and Sensation in Victorian Society

by
  • ISBN13:

    9781398108943

  • ISBN10:

    1398108944

  • Format: Hardcover
  • Copyright: 2024-08-13
  • Publisher: Amberley Publishing
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Summary

A fascinating, revealing examination of divorce in Victorian Britain - and what it meant for society as a whole. It is a story of high drama, humor, pathos and tragedy, brimming with moral comment that throws a light on the preoccupations of the age.

On Thursday January 11, 1883, the new Royal Courts of Justice opened its doors for business. From that day forward a stream of dissatisfied spouses from all over the country passed through the doors of courtrooms I and II with their tales of marital woe. Their desperate attempts to prove their partner’s marital crimes to judge and jury unwittingly became something of a spectator sport; the most sensational, instructive or noteworthy stories reported daily in copious detail by Fleet Street’s eager press.

The great causes célèbres revealed stories of decadence and disregard, arrogance and entitlement; the faults and foibles of an aristocracy that had once held reverence as a birthright exposed to a growing and increasingly scathing middle- and lower-class readership. Members of the professional class tasted the downside of celebrity; and for those of the working class who could scrape together enough money there was at last some relief from abusive, deserting or unfaithful spouses – but to what end?

Decadent Divorce takes a peep through the keyhole of the court to witness, not just ‘what the butler saw’, but what the world was invited to see; to explore what this microcosm of late Victorian society tells us about society at large. The picture that emerges is one of high drama, humor, pathos and tragedy, brimming with moral comment that throws a light on the social tensions and preoccupations of the age.

Author Biography

Ruth Derham is an independent scholar and this, her first book, is the fulfillment of a long ambition to write. After a career in business and higher education, she now dedicates herself full-time to writing. Her introduction to Frank Russell came quite by chance through her love of literature, and her fascination with his story has led to the publication of several articles in Russell and the journal of the Santayana Society, Overheard in Seville. She is currently co-editing a complete edition of Lionel Johnson’s Winchester Letters, compiling a volume of Frank’s major writings and speeches, and researching the history of the Victorian divorce court for a forthcoming work on its intrigues in the decadent era.

Supplemental Materials

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